Fruit fan goes bananas for double delight

Kate Wright took to social media after discovering her bonus-banana bounty

A woman got a "freaky" surprise when she found a "double banana" in her fruit bowl.

Kate Wright, from Kendal, Cumbria, stumbled upon the oversized piece of produce when she was about to have her breakfast.

"The first thing I did was put it on social media," she said. "It got quite a lot of likes."

Banana importers J N Fox and Sons said while it was common to see such fruit on plantations it was very unusual to find them in shops, as they were typically removed from harvests before reaching the shelves.

Kristy Fox, the firm's head of operations, said such bananas were usually removed from their stems when they were young.

She said this was to make sure they did not take too many nutrients away from single bananas, as well as to ensure they did not squash them when they grew.

Kate said the fruit tasted "normal" and shared it with her husband

The BBC has also seen pictures of "triple bananas".

"They're still edible," Ms Fox said. "There is nothing wrong with them... it's just how they grow."

Selling the fruit in shops could be used to tackle food waste, she suggested.

"Maybe they should be utilised like the wonky fruit you see in supermarkets," she said.

A lesser-spotted "triple banana", in all its glory

Ms Wright said the only person on her Facebook page who had seen such a fruit was a friend from the Philippines.

She was told there was a local superstition against women eating them, over debunked claims it may lead to conjoined twins. There are similar superstitions in Bangladesh and Indonesia.

The 49-year-old peeled the fruit the following day to find it was just two bananas in one skin and shared it with her husband.

"It tasted normal," she said.

"Double bananas" are typically removed from stems at the plantation