Move Over, Banana: Orange Is the New Most Popular Fruit for Work!

Move over, banana—orange is America’s favorite fruit now! In honor of National Fruit at Work Day on October 6, The FruitGuys asked workers nationwide about their favorite fruit to snack on at the office. The fact that the orange came out on top was a major upset. 

“Most people think of bananas as America’s favorite work fruit, and there’s good reason for that,” said Erin Mittelstaedt, CEO of The FruitGuys. “It was surprising—and fun—to see a totally different outcome in our poll!” 

Let’s take a look at the results, bananas’ reign of popularity, and why orange might have been the dark horse in our contest for most popular fruit. 

The Favorite Fruit Poll Results

The favorite fruit contest was neck-and-neck, but orange came out on top as our respondents’ favorite fruit with 29% of the vote. Apple came in second place with 25%, followed by banana with 24%. Pear brought up the rear with 22%. 

Upsetting Banana, the Reigning Champ

The results of our poll were a surprise because bananas have long been considered America’s favorite fruit. United States Department of Agriculture data shows they’re the most popular fruit in the US to eat fresh (apples and oranges are more popular if you count fruit juice). 

Bananas also have a history of popularity in the office. Here at The FruitGuys, our clients are always clamoring for bananas! They’re our bestselling fruit. Between our fruit mixes and bulk cases, we delivered about 8 million bananas from October 1, 2025–September 30, 2026 alone! Our friends at Crafty, who deliver our fruit to even more office pantries nationwide, also say bananas are their most popular office fruit. But in our poll, the superstar banana handed its crown to the humble orange. Why? Well, we have some thoughts. 

How Did Underdog Oranges Win? 

Oranges are wonderful, of course. They’re bright and sunny to look at, sweet and juicy to eat, and packed with healthy Vitamin C. They’re available year-round thanks to the overlapping seasonal varieties like navels, Valencias, and bloods. Eating one a day may even help lower your risk of depression. But there’s a problem with oranges: It’s easy to confuse them with other fruits! 

The Orange Imposters

You see, oranges are a type of citrus—and they look a lot like their relatives. Specifically, they’re easy to confuse with mandarins and tangelos, which can be similar in size and color. 

• Mandarins (also called tangerines or clementines) are often smaller and sweeter than oranges; many are easy to peel, and some are seedless
• Tangelos are often a little more oblong and sweet-tart than oranges and can have a bump near the stem

From October 1, 2025–September 30, 2026, The FruitGuys delivered about 6.1 million pieces of citrus, including oranges, mandarins, tangelos, and more. The differences between citrus fruits can be subtle, especially across varieties. (To learn more about how they’re related, check out our citrus family tree.)

Why does this matter? Well, easy-peeling mandarins are a very popular office fruit in their own right. We’ve seen a big jump in mandarin requests at The FruitGuys over the last year, and while oranges are Crafty’s second most popular fruit for the office, clementines are number three! 

Perplexity at the Polls

So, if anyone chose “orange” in the poll with mandarins in mind… well, that would boost orange’s ranking, wouldn’t it? And we have some evidence suggesting that could have happened. Two respondents told us they like snacking on “easy peel” oranges at work—which, let’s be honest, probably means they were thinking of mandarins.  

So, it’s quite possible that some of our voters chose “orange” when they actually meant “mandarin.” And combined, the powers of oranges and mandarins won out. Sorry, banana. 

Bring the Most Popular Fruits to Your Office

If you’re curious about which fruit would be most popular in your office, there’s an easy way to find out: Order them all for your break room and see which one disappears fastest! Or host a fruit tasting for your employees and ask them to vote for their top pick. 

The FruitGuys can help with either option. Just browse our office fruit mixes, ask us about bulk or weekly deliveries, or request a quote for a tasting event.