Fresh: Field ripe fruits are best for eating fresh, and it is only necessary to remove the crown, rind, eyes and core. The flesh of fruits is cut up in various ways and eaten fresh, as dessert, in salads, compotes or cooked in pies, cakes, puddings, as a garnish on ham, made into sauces or preserves. Southeast Asians use the pineapple in curries and various meat and seafood dishes.

In Africa, young, tender shoots are eaten in salads. The terminal bud or "cabbage" and the inflorescences are eaten raw or cooked. Young shoots, called "hijos de pina" are sold on vegetable markets in Guatemala.

Pineapple juice is taken as a diuretic and to expedite labour, also as a gargle in cases of sore throat and as an antidote for seasickness.

Processed: In the Philippines, the fermented pulp is made into a popular sweetmeat called nata de pina. The pineapple does not lend itself well to freezing, as it tends to develop off flavours.

Canned pineapple is consumed throughout the world. The highest grade is the skinned, cored fruit sliced crosswise and packed in syrup. Undersize or overripe fruits are cut into "spears", chunks or cubes.

Crushed pineapple, juice, nectar, concentrate, marmalade and other preserves are commercially prepared from the flesh remaining attached to the skin after the cutting and trimming of the central cylinder. There is a growing demand for pineapple juice as a beverage. All residual parts cores, skin and fruit ends are crushed and given a first pressing for juice to be canned as such or prepared as syrup used to fill the cans of fruit, or is utilised in confectionery and beverages, or converted into powdered pineapple extract which has various roles in the food industry. A second pressing yields "skin juice" which can be made into vinegar or mixed with molasses for fermentation and distillation of alcohol.

Industrial: Bromelain, a proteolytic enzyme, is derived from pineapple juice. It is used to tenderise meat and chill-proof beer. Bromelain is also used in industry for stabilising latex paint and tanning leather.

Fibre: Pineapple leaves yield a strong, white, silky fiber which was extracted by Filipinos before 1591. The 'Perolera' is an ideal cultivar for fiber extraction because its leaves are long, wide and rigid. The fibre is used as thread, coarse textiles resembling grass cloth, for stringing jewellery, fine casting nets and as fabric made into clothing. Pina cloth made from pineapple fibres are highly priced in the Philippines .

Folk Medicine: The flesh of very young (toxic) fruits is deliberately ingested to achieve abortion; also to expel intestinal worms; and as a drastic treatment for venereal diseases. In Africa the dried, powdered root is a remedy for oedema. The crushed rind is applied on fractures and the rind decoction with rosemary is applied on hemorrhoids. Indians in Panama use the leaf juice as a purgative, emmenagogue (to induce menstruation) and vermifuge.