Smashed Pineapple On Toast, Anyone?

Pineapples are the new avocados, apparently. According to Tesco, they’ve been flying off the shelves – not literally; their heavy weight and spiky exterior would make that a pretty painful experience for all involved.

But they have been making their way into our shopping baskets more frequently, with data showing that sales of pineapples were up by 15 per cent last year. Could this be a moment in history? Will we one day look back and realise this was the beginning of The Age of Pineapple? Who knows?

Sales of avocados still grew in 2017, but by less than ten per cent, so we’re confidently (ish) predicting that we’ll all be eating smashed pineapple on toast and chicken, bacon and pineapple salads before long, as well as dipping our nachos into mashed pineapple seasoned with chillies.

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Does this mean we’ll have to change our stance on pineapple on a pizza though? Will it suddenly become socially acceptable, and even trendy? Well, according to Tesco’s data, it already is…

Yep, sales of Hawaiian pizzas also increased last year, by 15 per cent. Meanwhile, pineapple snacking fingers (no, not breaded like fish fingers, just sticks of pineapple to munch on) were 30 per cent more popular in 2017 than the previous year, while Brits also purchased 20 per cent more pineapple juice and sales of pineapple chunks were up by five per cent. The nation has officially gone pineapple-mad.

Morgan Jaquemet, fresh pineapple buyer at Tesco (what a career!), commented: “Pineapples have become the fruit taste of the moment and could soon rival the avocado as a once-niche fruit suddenly gaining mainstream popularity.

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“In the last few years, we have seen demand jump because of the fruit’s rising popularity as a versatile and healthy food – it’s even made its way onto the BBQ in the summer months now.”

That’s not instead of burgers and sausages, but as a tasty burger topper or a healthy summer dessert – although if you want to put a pineapple snacking finger in a hot dog bun, we’re not going to hold you back.

Pineapples are absolutely packed with vitamins and various studies over the years have shown that they can do everything from help wounds to heal faster (pineapples are magic) to preventing the onset of arthritis and dementia – not too shabby for a fruit! All hail the pineapple.