Injuries involving avocados have cost the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) more than $800,000 in the past three years, it has been revealed.

Lacerations and punctures were the most common avocado injury suffered by ACC claimants, NZ Herald reports. The next highest claim was for soft tissue injuries, which claimed 105 victims last year, 96 in 2017 and 88 in 2016.

ACC data shows 1,196 people managed to injure themselves while preparing avocado. It revealed that the costs of those claims have increased over the years, with 2018 seeing a total cost of $320,371 and 2016 costing $232,323.

“People injure themselves by attempting to prepare avocados in an unsafe manner,” an AVOCO spokesperson told the publication.

“A safe method is to place the avocado on a chopping board, slice the avocado longitudinally and then rotating it in order to slice the other half,” he said. “Once the avocado is halved, if the seed is not removed easily, the avocado should be rotated again and sliced into quarters on the chopping board.”