An English Plastic Surgeon Wants Avocados to Come With a Warning Label

Avocados are loaded with healthy fats, but the fashionable fruits pose a serious health hazard for home chefs: As Konbini reports, emergency rooms in England are seeing an increase in knife-related hand injuries, all from people trying to prepare avocados. Surgeons chalk the phenomenon up to the food’s fairly recent trendiness and have coined a nickname, "avocado hand," for these types of wounds.

No official stats exist just yet, but according to The Times of London, a multitude of avocado-related accidents have led to "serious nerve and tendon injuries, requiring intricate surgery." Some patients have even lost function in their injured appendages.

On this side of the pond, according to The New York Times, "the United States track kitchen injuries by ingredient," so it’s hard to know for sure how many people are being injured while prepping the fruit. That said, one Mental Floss editor is all too familiar with the dangers of avocados: "My boyfriend once sliced open his finger trying to pit an avocado," she says. "A lot of blood and a trip to Urgent Care later and he still can't bend the finger fully."

Things have gotten so out of, uh, hand in England's ER rooms that the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons is now cautioning avocado lovers about the safety risk. One noted plastic surgeon, Simon Eccles, even says the fruits need warning labels.

"It needs to be recognizable," Eccles—who treats an average of four patients a week for avocado-related accidents—tells The Times. "Perhaps we could have a cartoon picture of an avocado with a knife, and a big red cross going through it?"

Avocados are tricky to prep, thanks to their oval shapes, hard pits, and buttery texture. But to peel them, all one needs is a butter knife, or even a spoon—and judging from a bevy of gruesome ER pictures, many home chefs get knife-happy, and use sharp blades to slice and dice the food.

In short, choosing a sharp or serrated blade to cut a slippery, oblong fruit is definitely an avocadon't. Some advice: Steer clear of the chef knives the next time you’re in the mood for avocado toast, and opt for a blunt tool. Your hands (and wallet—ER trips are expensive) will thank you.