A punnet is a small box or basket used for the gathering, transport, and sale of fruit and vegetables, typically for small berries that are susceptible to bruising, spoiling, and squashing and are therefore best kept in small rigid containers. The word is largely confined to Commonwealth countries (but not Canada) and is of uncertain origin, but is thought to be a diminutive of pun, a British dialect word for pound, from the days in which such containers were used as a unit of measurement.
Punnets serve as a rough measure for a quantity of irregular sized fruits. Contemporary punnets are generally made in a variety of dimensions of semi-rigid, transparent, lightweight PET plastic with lockable lids, or of clamshell design, and with vents. Their advantage is that they permit visual examination by the consumer but discourage physical contact with the merchandise at the point of sale.
