Answer by s_baldur for Convert a columns into separate columns in wide format in R

df[c("Apple", "Banana")] <- list(df$FRUITS == "Apple", df$FRUITS == "Banana")#   Gender  AgeGroup EAT FRUITS Apple Banana# 1 Female 30yr_39yr Yes  Apple  TRUE  FALSE# 2 Female 20yr_29yr Yes  Apple  TRUE  FALSE# 3 Female 70yr_80yr Yes  Apple  TRUE  FALSE# 4   Male 50yr_59yr Yes Banana FALSE   TRUE# 5 Female 40yr_49yr Yes  Apple  TRUE  FALSE# 6 Female 70yr_80yr Yes  Apple  TRUE  FALSE

To generalise to more value you could use:

cols <- c("Apple", "Banana")df[cols] <- lapply(cols, \(x) df$FRUITS == x)