A UK supermarket is trialling in-store avocado scanners that allow shoppers to assess the ripeness of fruit before they put it in their baskets. Tesco has confirmed the machines, which will be used in five stores from this week, will work much like tiny X-ray machines that reads what the fruit looks like inside.
All customers need to do is hold an avocado, for example, in front of the scanner and it will return with one of two readings. These are: immediately ready for smashing, or that they should be cut into pieces and used in a salad instead. The technology is called the One Third Avocado Scanner, named after the Dutch company that invented it.
Tesco avocado buyer Lisa Lawrence told PA: “The scanner will enable shoppers to choose the avocado that is right for them and which therefore can help them plan their usage and desired shelf life, thereby cutting down on waste.
“Smashed avocado on sourdough continues to be one of the trendiest snacks at the moment, garnering millions of views on social media sites for recipe ideas, so we think, for that reason, the scanner will be really popular with shoppers.”
The Tesco stores trialling the never-before-seen scanners will be Cheshunt Extra in Hertfordshire, Colchester Superstore in Essex, Stratford-upon-Avon Superstore in Warwickshire, Wokingham Superstore in Berkshire, and Salisbury Extra in Wiltshire.
According to data released by the supermarket, avocados have never been more popular with Tesco selling nearly 15 million more in the last year than the one prior.
Tesco has worked with global avocado supplier Westfalia Fruit, a firm based in Spalding, Lincolnshire, on the project.
Commercial manager Emma Howes said the scanner is “just one of the many initiatives we’ve worked on over the past year”.
She added that other initiatives include trialling lasered avocados, which gets rid of the plastic label currently used on the fruit, and the roll-out of cardboard and paper packaging across Tesco’s pre-packed avocado lines.
All this is said to save “20 million pieces of plastic a year”.
The announcement comes around the time thousands of shoppers were experiencing technological issues with the Tesco mobile app.
More than 1,200 reports were made on the outage tracking site, Downdetector on Tuesday morning. Issues include the inability to do your grocery shopping, with one customer posting on X: “Can’t spend my money!”
