Choosing the right gift baskets for your friends and family, clients, colleagues and business associates is generally pretty easy. Everyone loves to get baskets of delicious citrus fruit and other treats, and since gift basket goodies are easily shared they are perfect gifts for giving to a family, an entire office, or a couple.  But, there are a few mistakes that people make when choosing gift baskets that are easy to avoid if you think carefully about who each gift basket is for before you choose that baskets:

Including items that the gift recipient is allergic to - This is the number one mistake that people make when choosing gift baskets.  Usually this mistake occurs when people add gourmet goodies to gift baskets of citrus fruits such as nuts or candies. If you're not sure whether or not the person who is receiving the gift basket is allergic to nuts it's better to stick with just delicious citrus fruit, or packaged baked goods that won't trigger allergies.  Since some nut allergies can be life threatening it's better to skip the nuts altogether if you don't know for sure someone is not allergic to them.

Including items that conflict with the recipient's dietary needs - If you're giving a gift basket to a friend or relative you probably know whether or not the person getting the gift has a health condition like diabetes that prevents them from eating certain foods or if they choose to eat only vegan or vegetarian foods and can pick a gift basket accordingly. However, for business associates or clients that you might not know well enough to know if they have special dietary needs it's best to pick a gift basket full of naval oranges, grapefruits, exotic tangelos, or other fruits that can be enjoyed by almost anyone.  Gift towers, which contain multiple boxes of treats, are also a good option because with a gift tower the person can simply give the boxes containing treats they can't eat to someone else.

Waiting until the last minute - Fruit baskets of exotic or seasonal fruits may sell out earlier than you think, especially around the holidays, so it's much better to order gift baskets at least a month in advance than to wait until the last minute. Ordering early ensures that your friends, family, and colleagues will get the best seasonal and exotic fruits picked at the height of freshness.