there always seems to be something new going on in the salad market. What is particularly interesting is the way the sector is moving to the point where convenience, adding value and mixing has become so common that the products on offer barely resemble traditional salad fare.

Marks & Spencer has come up with a massive range of what can almost be called square mini snack pots on offer this week at 25 per cent off (for one if you buy two). The mixes that caught my eye were tomatoes and mozzarella (£2.99) and Edamame soya bean salad (£1.99).

Heading back to the more conventional range, I wonder if the days of having to buy several coloured types of lettuce to decorate the salad bowl are numbered.Sainsbury’s has an exclusive variety called Crest, priced at £1.29 and intriguingly the variety has multi-coloured leaves ranging from green, though yellow to the shade of dark oak leaf: a real all-in-one.

And, of course, there is no getting away from tomatoes. I thought I had come across all the named varieties by this time, but Lidl, which is importing from Holland, is stocking an internationally-labelled 300g punnet of a variety called Aromio, priced at 89p.

Meanwhile, although the weather seems to have broken this week, it has been a hard time for soft-fruit growers, although to their credit they are still coming up with the goods.

M&S has a 750g single layer tray of Jubilee, priced at £5.99 with instructions to keep it flat on the way home - to keep the fruit in its attractive arrangement and prevent bruising, which is increasingly prevalent at this time of year.

However, for sheer eye-catching experience, the Tesco mixed berry tray, priced at £3.99, takes some beating. With each fruit - strawberries as the centrepiece, surrounded by blackberries, blueberries and raspberries - positioned in its own segment, the product looks as tempting as a box of chocolates.

Stone fruit, too, is plentiful despite the conditions in Europe, which have reduced volumes. Portugal, as well as Spain, is back in the plum business, probably benefiting from the fact that the mid-season English crop is hardly visible, with warm nights having retarded colour.

Fulfilling its pledge to be ‘different’, Sainsbury’s is offering premium-branded Avner-Pluot grown in France by Ben Dor, at £1 off. Whether this is an indication that it is still some way to go before the public recognises these types of hybrids in their own right is a matter for conjecture. What I did notice, however, was that it was virtually impossible to detect any visual difference - apart from size - between these pluots and the retailer’s much talked about brontosaurus variety, which is labelled as a plum.

At least there was no mistaking the M&S mixed 600g grape punnet, which contains the registered variety Absolutely Pink, alongside Ebony for £3.49. Meanwhile, the time of year has arrived where Norwegian Van cherries, grown high up above the fjords, make an appearance. Sold in 350g punnets, on offer at two for £5, they must be the ultimate example of a niche market.

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