People are twice as likely to Google tomatoes as apples, which is the second most common searched-for fruit.

The review, by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), found Google lists 53.6 million web pages mentioning tomatoes. Bananas and peaches are in joint third place on the Google search, followed by oranges.

As well as the UK, tomatoes also come out top in the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Apples rank second in all of these counties except New Zealand, where peaches are the second most favourite fruit.

The research was carried out to mark Fruity Friday, which aims to encourage people to eat more fruit and vegetables.

Teresa Nightingale, general manager for the WCRF, said: "I have always thought of apples, oranges and bananas as the most popular fruits, so I was surprised to see them all beaten by the tomato, especially as many people actually think of tomatoes as a vegetable.

"But although we tend to cook tomatoes in our evening meals or in savoury dishes, this doesn't change the fact that the tomato is a fruit.

"We are not sure whether people are looking for information about growing tomatoes or finding out about their nutritional content, but they are the winner by some distance.

"It is also clear that a wide range of fruits are being Googled, which supports our Fruity Friday message that as well as eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, you should also try to get as wide a variety as possible.

"As well as being good for health generally, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables probably reduces risk of cancer."