A fruit cocktail is well-defined in the US to mean a well-distributed mixture of small diced pieces of (from highest percentage to lowest) peaches, pears, pineapple, grapes, and cherry halves.

Common ingredients used in fruit salads include strawberries, pineapple, honeydew, watermelon,[1] grapes, and kiwifruit.

In Hawaii by influence of Cantonese immigrants during the sugar plantation days,"almond float" was introduced, where almond flavored gelatin is prepared, cubed, and typically mixed with canned fruit cocktail and canned lychee.

There is also an extended variety of fruit salads in Moroccan cuisine, often as part of a kemia, a selection of appetizers or small dishes analogous to Spanish tapas or eastern Mediterranean mezze.

The use of the word "cocktail" in the name does not mean that it contains alcohol, but refers to the secondary definition: " an appetizer made by combining pieces of food, such as fruit or seafood".

It must contain fruits in the following range of percentages:[5] Both William Vere Cruess of the University of California, Berkeley and Herbert Gray of the Barron-Gray Packing Company of San Jose, California, have been credited with the invention of fruit cocktails.