Update: avocado hand – should the fruit come with a warning sticker?

I think you’ve found the target market for the novelty aprons emblazoned with nudey torsos Patrick.

We’re not necessarily suggesting a whole new category of product testing. But, you’ve got to admit, it could potentially be something we may have to look at more seriously. especially if our NHS is having to deal with injuries sustained through the preparation of a certain fruit and vegetables.

I would definitely read Which? reviews of so-called ‘life hack’ type kitchen tools though.

I fear holding the fruit in one hand and any type of sharp utensil in the other to prepare a meal could end in with blood being drawn.

Eeesh! Yes, mandolins can be dearth traps for the ends of our fingers. I have enough trouble with graters. Not sure I’m brave enough to go straight to the potato guillotine.

Totally agree with your second point. A number of my friends, who are no longer in their twenties, still seem to struggle in the kitchen and specifically the creation of healthy, nutritious meals. As a veggie I have to try a little harder to ensure I’m getting everything my body needs so I find it hard to believe some people my age survive on a diet of beige: http://12roundsboxing.co.uk/are-you-surviving-on-the-diet-of-beige/

I had not appreciated the danger of mandolins, only that there is too much violins on TV.

That’s what my utensil drawer is missing! A chain mail glove! Would love to see my friends’ faces when I pull that out.

‘Stone me!’ Very clever @johnward. Your wordplay is a ‘cut’ above.

Looking for something completely different, I saw that Amazon offer a number of ‘cut resistant gloves’. I am taking up the carpet on the stairs and landing in an old house and it is incredibly tough. I cannot cut it with any tools I have and it is awkward to get in the corners and edges so I have ordered a specialist knife and scissors and while I was at it I included a pair of “NoCry Cut Resistant Gloves with Secure-Grip Microdots and Level 5 Cut Protection. Comfort-Fit. Food Grade, Size Medium. Includes Free eCookbook!“. I have already reduced my fingernails to shreds and taken the skin off my knuckles so hopefully this equipment will do the job and then be useful in the kitchen for the occasional avocado.

From some of the avocadoes I have been given to eat in restaurants it is obvious that the not everybody serving them knows (or cares) when they are ripe. Much of the fruit and vegetables sold isn’t ripe when it leaves the shop and needs time to ripen before being eaten.

I cut all around the stone lengthwise and twist so that it comes apart in two halves. I then cut it into quarters and the stone is easy to remove. I then peel the skin off each quarter. There’s no flesh left on the skin!

An oven glove could be a nice substitute while you wait for your chain mail glove to arrive in the post. But, I would always recommend dropping the blade onto the stone only when the avocado half is facing stone-up on a chopping board and not cupped in your hand.

Just ensuring Which? isn’t seen to be giving out digit-endangering advice here @malcolm-r 🙂

@lessismore – Your technique has been illustrated here: 🙂

You need a Daunt. Stronger than a Gauntlet and much more fun…

That’s great. You could also show how if you peel the skin off rather than scooping the flesh out you make the most of the flesh. This of course always depends on you choosing a ripe avocado to start with. I think this is really what the problem is. You can’t smash or mash a hard avocado. Are there more of the dark rough skinned avocadoes around now than the thinner skinned green ones? The dark rough skinned Haas ones are a bit harder to tell if ripe. Avocadoes are one of the fruits that can be marked down and left on sale when they are overripe and I would consider them inedible even in guacamole.

Interestingly I learnt recently that the stone might be better for you than the flesh. However my ancient Robotchef isn’t strong enough to pulverise the stone and is best for grating carrots. When it dies I shall be looking for a replacement that can do more. The stone doesn’t taste very nice though and would need to be mixed in with a smoothie.

We have a serious subject that could avoid people chopping their arteries and Derek takes our names in vein.

Yep, me too 🥑

Thought April 1st had come round again !!!

Now I could understand injuries trying to get the skin off a butternut squash 🔪🔨⛏

Londoners …. that is why nearly endemic not epidemic – as it relates to a certain group of people.

It happens to the best of us, even Hollywood legends:

It happens to the best of us. Even Hollywood legends:

Here’s a handy trick for you @alfa:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMzVUk5jNeD/?taken-by=onepoundmeals&hl=en

Also, the dish is extremely yummy, and cheap!

Hi Andrew – We don’t see you around here much these days. Potato peelers are a safer option for dealing with potatoes, or simply scrub the skins with a pan scourer.

Thank you @dsamways, think I would use cinnamon for flavour.

It had not occurred to me that the peelers in the kitchen drawer could pose a threat but apparently they are a recognised risk. Many years ago I learned that tea cosies and socks are other dangers lurking in the home.

Not to mention toilet roll holders, doors, windows, carpets, bare wood floors, next door’s cat and the milkman.

I bet the staff working who have to deal with these problems must find it difficult not to laugh at times.

Your first two statements are relevant in this day and age EM , where western society now been conditioned to blame somebody/anybody for problems caused by themselves , it is now a multi Billion $$ industry in the USA where the biggest profit makers are lawyers and dont say its doesn’t happen here as , per usual, US social practices of -sue on sight , is enhanced by the large number of “ambulance chaser ” lawyer adverts on British TV . It hasn’t reached US proportions but is just another US import . I have no problem with genuine cases but some now appearing are ludicrous , every child is now “precious ” , every word is watched, in my day it was different , if the things that happened to me when young occurred now I would be a very rich person from legal advocacy. Its a matriarchal run society in the social sense , all very well, but at times it goes way out of hand in the “protection ” basis . Maybe its just me , used to a tough childhood in a tough working class area where you had to protect yourself but I certainly learned a lot about life by living it , not “secured ” in a room ,isolated living in a virtual world of this digital era and believing it was the “norm ” for the human race.

Absolutely right Duncan.

Manufacturers and service providers have a duty not to design and sell products that are knowingly unsafe (e.g. cars, tumble driers) and deserve everything they get. But the idea that you could hold suppliers liable for selling a “tricky” avocado or other unripe stone fruit in its natural state is ludicrous.

Putting a sticker on a fruit doesn’t make it any less dangerous, or provide any useful function in teaching people how to use a knife properly – it’s just another “CYA” in case someone tries to sue.

And how would you prove that the sticker was attached to the particular fruit in question? Will you have to sign a disclaimer at the checkout to prove you were made aware of the risks?

That might seem a stupid thought to us but, no doubt, the corporate lawyers are already working on that one. Have you checked the small print on the back of a till receipt lately?

I was actually drawn to produce this convo after hearing it reported on the Today programme a couple of weeks ago. It actually made me laugh out loud. for that reason, I guess you could say I’m on your side of the fence Em.

But on a more serious point, I’d suggest there’s an newsworthiness when hospitals feel they have to report these injuries and are having to treat them when they could be seeing to other cases.

I’m going to disagree. 🙂 I believe that it is useful to help people learn to carry out tasks in a safer way. I hope no-one tries to take action against greengrocers or supermarkets, but if we can help cut down the number of accidents with information about how to tackle an avocado, why not?

I’m not disagreeing that alerting the public to new dangers is a bad thing. But avocados have been a mainstream food for 40 years or more. The problem is that people are not being taught basic life skills any more. And no one seems interested in learning from primary sources.

So issues have to be presented in little bite-sized snippets, hoping that they will go viral on Internet social media, news feeds or traditional media via “press releases”.

The trouble is that this method of dissemination is incredibly inefficient (just look at the size of this convo to bring it to the attention of a select handful of Which? subscribers). It suppresses other less “worthy” issues, and most of the dross published or re-Tweeted is totally devoid of any useful information. Of 100 people that become aware of “avocado hand”, what percentage of those actually take the trouble to find out how to handle a knife properly?

The main reason there is a rise in these accidents is because avocados have become trendy. Once this latest fad has passed, it will join all the other non-issues, like the risk of burning yourself using a fondue set.

Why isn’t as much attention and effort put into improving driver education? There are 500 road casualties in the UK every day. It seems wrong to me to focus on the impact avocados are having on A&E departments when this daily carnage goes unnoticed.

Preparing avocados is a lifestyle choice that is easily avoided. Using dangerous public roads is not. And no doubt, some of these road casualties are being caused by inattentive drivers keeping up with this barrage of infotainment on their mobile phones.

Good Ian , cheered me up !

Same lines as ‘The Fly’, probably. Innocent young girl slowly turns into a man-eating fruit…

I will hazard a guess, John. The avocado stone is smooth, so there is nothing for a tool or fingers to grip. Attempting to remove it from a half avocado will create a vacuum that will pull it back to its original position. I may do some investigation but not until I have bought a new first aid kit.