Marks & Spencer Classic Fruit Salad
€4.40 for 370g, 11.89 per kg
Marks & Spencer does many things very well, but it does few things better than fruit – although it has to be said the excellence frequently comes at a price. But not here, and the per-kilo price of its fruit salad is comparatively cheap. It also tastes great. The melon was juicy and full of flavour, the whole strawberries were pleasingly sour, and the apple and grapes were excellent. The orange was pretty good too, although some of our tasters remarked on the amount of pips in each slice; a petty complaint if ever we heard one. It is not as widely available as its rivals and the size is problematic. It is probably too much for one person (at least in a single sitting), and once opened it doesn't keep brilliantly.
Verdict: Excellent
Star rating: ****

Centra Fruit Salad
€1.99 for 170g, €11.70 per kg
This little fruit pot is kind of cute, and we reckon the 170g size is ideal for a single portion. The little fork is handy if you are having your lunch al desko or on the street – although it should be no great hardship to eat fruit with your fingers. The fruit in the mix is grand if nothing special: small chunks of pineapple, small grapes, melon that was weirdly devoid of juice and flavour, and a couple of slices of apple. It is by any measure a healthy snack and cheapest of the store-bought options.
Verdict: Grand but a bit bland
Star rating: ***

Tesco Fruit Salad
€3.29 for 220g, €14.95 per kg
The first thing we noticed about this was the price. We wrongly expected the M&S fruit salad to be on the pricey end, and we assumed the Tesco option would be considerably cheaper. Wrong again. Price aside, we were also concerned by the amount of kiwi in the mix. All told, this pot was made up of 40 per cent kiwi. And while the fruit is grand, the presence of so much of it took a whole lot away from the variety. (To be fair to Tesco, it does have other fruit salads available and it did make the presence of the kiwi clear in the labelling.) The melon and strawberry were supposed to add a sweetness to contrast with the kiwi tang, but we found those elements to be on the bland side.
Verdict: Too dear
Star rating: **

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The DIY Option
€3 for 1kg
Last week we were able to buy six kiwis and three oranges for 39 cent from Aldi under its super six deal. If we added a couple of apples and a punnet of strawberries sourced in the same shop, a kilo of fresh fruit salad would have been ours for less than €3, which made the DIY option impossible to beat in both freshness and value for money. Admittedly there is more work involved and the fruit is not always available as such a discounted price. And making a kilo of fruit salad means you either have a fair few mouths to feed, really love fruit salad, or will end up binning a lot of it.
Verdict: Best value by far
Star rating: *****