Whole grapes are one of the foods parents get warned about most. They’re round, smooth and just the right size to block a small child’s airway, and the NHS advice is to cut grapes, cherry tomatoes and similar small round foods lengthways, ideally into quarters, for young children. Anyone who has tried knows that quartering a whole bowl of grapes with a knife is slow and fiddly, and half of them roll off the board.

That’s the whole job of a grape cutter like the Luvan Grape Cutter. You drop a grape into the little cup, squeeze the handle, and it comes out the bottom in four pieces.

So how does it actually work?

The cup at the end is semi-enclosed, so the grape sits still instead of rolling off the board. Underneath it there’s a cross-shaped blade in 304 stainless steel with a serrated edge. Press the handle with your thumb and a plunger pushes the grape down through the blade. Let go and the spring brings the plunger back up, ready for the next one. It works one-handed, which matters if you’ve got a toddler on your hip.

Stand the grape upright in the cup, stalk end up, and the cuts run along its length, which is the direction the safety advice recommends.

What else can go through it?

According to the listing, most small, soft, stone-free things: grapes, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, pitted cherries and pitted olives. Cherry tomatoes are the other big one for little ones, so that’s handy. Anything with a stone in it needs pitting first, or you’ll be fighting the blade.

Is it worth it, or is a knife fine?

Honestly, if you cut a handful of grapes once a week, a sharp knife and a bit of patience will do. It makes more sense for daily snack prep, lunchbox packing, or anyone with more than one small child. Twenty grapes go through it in about the time it takes to do five by hand, and you don’t have to hold slippery fruit near a blade.

The body is food-grade ABS plastic, and the listing says it rinses clean under the tap or can go in the dishwasher. Being small and simple, there isn’t much for food to hide in.

Does it make grapes completely safe?

No gadget can promise that. Quartered grapes are much safer than whole ones, but small children should still be sat down and supervised while they eat. Check the pieces come out fully separated, especially with bigger grapes, which can end up only partly cut.

Here’s the Luvan Grape Cutter on Amazon, which had a 4.7-star average from around 1,800 ratings when we checked.