The Hass Avocado Board estimated roughly 158 million avocados were used to make guacamole, dips, and other snack items this past Sunday, up approximately ten percent from last year.
By comparison, back in 2000 when the St. Louis Rams won the big game, only 16 million avocados were served at game-watching parties. During this year's Superdome match-up in New Orleans, If you were to fill the stadium with the same number of avocados being consumed throughout the nation, you would have a field covered 30 feet deep.
"Consumers are going beyond traditional guacamole to spice up their parties," said Emiliano Escobedo, executive director of the Hass Avocado Board. "They're being a little more adventurous and they're adding fruit like mango or pineapple to make it a little bit of a tropical flair, and then they're also trying it with seafood."
In the United States, the Hass variety accounts for 95 percent of all avocados consumed. Rudolph Hass developed the strain that now bears his name at his home in La Habra Heights, in Southern California during the mid 1920s.
