Recent soaring summer temperatures seem to have had a remarkable effect on fruit and vegetables as far as snacking products are concerned, writes David Shapley. The indication is that convenience is taking a further stride along the shelves.

There is already a massive range of prepared salads, mini-vegetables and special ethnic food packs on the shelves, but this month saw the introduction of at least one new line in most stores as the barbecue season reaches its height.

New vegetable kebabs from Tesco (£1.49), must present one of the most complex assembly-line challenges yet, featuring as they do some seven ingredients pared with mathematical exactitude.

There is also much more activity on cut-fruit lines. These are a far cry from the days of melons and pineapples chopped up and presented in leaky packaging.

Now at least the offerings are water - or should I say juice - tight. But convenience does not come cheaply of course. Marks & Spencer has launched a new fruit salad pack at £4.99 which contains 40 per cent pineapple, 31 per cent nectarines, 25 per cent strawberries and four per cent blueberries.

Down the economic scale, I found a fresh fruit mix at Tesco for 89p featuring orange, pineapple, grapes and apples where it seems at last that science has solved the problem of discolouration.

Meanwhile, the loose salad sections get more and more competitive. In the same store, Tesco was giving away a free cucumber with vine tomatoes.

Sharper-eyed customers might have wondered, however, with some excellent fruit carrying the label “British Tomato Week”, why Belgium also had a strong presence interspersed among the displays.

The presence of English asparagus at M&S, courtesy of the Chinn family, also shows that this season is getting longer, as predicted by the Asparagus Growers Association this year. It may mean the AGA will have to change its message next season and revise information to the media that the last of the crop is always cut on June 20-21.

Apples are also waving the Union Jack and refusing to be outdone. On shelves bowing under the weight of Braeburn, Gala, Tentation, Pink Lady, Golden Delicious and Jazz, I had a sighting of English Jonagold pre-packs. Maybe with Discovery not too far off we will soon complete the UK seasonal circle.

And finally, Sainsbury’s has come up with a new organic baking potato, supplied by Israeli growers.

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