Battling the pitfall under the peel

Living with the avocado-hand you’ve been dealt

Of all the dangers that lurk in our kitchens, avocados might be the most quietly sinister. The green-fleshed fruit of Instagram-perfect avocado toast and party platters of guacamole has caused so many injuries that it even has an ailment named after it: Avocado-hand. That’s what happens when you try to dig out an avocado pit with a sharp knife and end up slicing your palm instead.

But British grocery chain Tesco is trying to combat this epidemic. The brand has introduced an easy-peel avocado, with “a thicker and corkier consistency to its skin,” which the company says should help with “one of the messiest and potentially dangerous kitchen chores.” The Easyavo, as it’s called, is a naturally developed hybrid grown in South Africa. It costs more than double a conventional avocado at the chain. Westfalia Fruit, the firm that grows it, said it is not yet available in North America.

You might laugh at avocado-hand — especially because avocados have become a sort of catch-all scapegoat for millennial and uppermiddle-class derision — but it really is a problem. According to the Chicago Tribune, avocado consumption has increased by 250 per cent since 2002. There aren’t reliable statistics on how many Americans have been injured cutting an avocado, but emergency rooms report that it is becoming more frequent. In New Zealand, an average of 100 people a year who have cut themselves while handling an avocado request compensation from a government fund for injuries. The British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons called for safety labels on the fruit. One London doctor said he was treating four patients a week for avocadorelated injuries.

“I see it fairly frequently,” Scott Dresden of Northwestern University’s Department of Emergency Medicine told the Tribune. “Patients try to stab the pit, the knife slips off the pit and they stab the hand. Or patients do a sort of hacking motion with the long blade of the knife into the pit, and hack into the webbing between the thumb and the forefinger instead.”

Tesco is not the only firm that has tried to address avocado-hand. Dozens of kitchen goods companies make avocado slicers, but they’ve been met with derision from chefs. A group of British schoolchildren invented the “Avogo,” a hooked blade that extracts the pit. And NPR reports Marks & Spencer has introduced the cocktail avocado, a small avocado grown with no pit. It tastes like a regular avocado; even the peel is edible, but reportedly doesn’t taste very good. The problem is they are grown only in Spain and available only in December.

If you’re scared of avocadohand, remember: Always cut against a flat surface, not with the fruit in your palm.