Why do you need stickers on fruits, and what do the numbers on them mean?
'17.06.2021'
Source: MedAboutMe
Producers do not pack fruit in pretty boxes. Therefore, the only way to present your products to customers is with small stickers on the peel. This is not a decor, but a label that can tell a lot about the quality of a product. Together with MedAboutMe Let's figure out how to determine by a miniature sticker which fruits displayed in the store are natural and which are genetically modified.
Why do you need stickers on fruits
If you are offered to buy fruit with or without a sticker, which product will you choose? Many consumers prefer pure fruits, because then they do not have to wash sticky pieces of paper from beautiful apples.
Fruit with stickers is imported. And by choosing them, you risk less. It is safer to give preference to labeled fruits, because miniature stickers are a sign of product quality. Stickers are either on the fruit itself or on the boxes in which the products are delivered.
Most often, the labels feature the brand logo and barcode. Many manufacturers additionally indicate on the sticker some features of their product - size, taste, calorie content. For example, in America, the exotic cherimoya fruit is accompanied by a sticker with the attention-grabbing inscription Delicious Tropical Fruit. Rich in Vitamines (Delightful vitamin-rich tropical fruit). Other growers are highlighting the word organic on the label to appeal to buyers who prefer natural fruits grown without the use of chemical fertilizers.
Stickers can be eaten
According to the current rules, suppliers of fruit and vegetable products must use stickers made of edible paper. Even in the glue, the presence of harmful chemical components is not allowed. Everything is for the safety of the consumer! Therefore, do not panic if you accidentally eat some of the glue left on the peel after removing the sticker with the apple.
Note
From tangerines and bananas, you will remove the sticker directly from the peel. And to quickly remove traces of glue on the apple after removing the small sticker, you can use scotch tape. Stick it on the part of the fruit that you want to peel, then tear it off: the tape will take with it all the remnants of the glue.
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From organic to GMOs: what the numbers on the labels mean
In addition to information about the manufacturer, stickers also often contain a special PLU-code (Price-Look Up). As a rule, this is the way to decorate fruits supplied by producers to retail outlets.
The PLU code is 4 or 5 digits long. This product naming system is developed in the USA and is strictly controlled by the Produce Marketing Association. The next time you buy bananas or oranges, look at this set of numbers. What product information can a PLU code give?
If you saw fruit with a sticker, where in the digital code is the first "nine", consider yourself very lucky. This is the labeling of organic products that are grown without the use of chemical fertilizers.
A four-digit code, the first of which is "3" or "4"
Most fruits and vegetables have this sticker on their skins. This PLU-code means that the fruits were grown according to all principles of intensive agriculture - with the active use of machine labor, with the use of various types of fertilizers. The manufacturer has the right not to indicate which fertilizers were used - it can be both harmless organic matter and potentially hazardous pesticides.
Five-digit code, the first of them is "8"
This is perhaps the most dubious sticker that many consumers fear. A PLU code with a figure eight at the beginning means that genetic engineering was used to grow a particular fruit. That is, in front of you is a genetically modified (GMO) fetus. Bananas are most common.
Wayne Parrott, professor in the Department of Agriculture and Ecology at the University of Georgia:
“Before any genetically modified product is placed on the market to the consumer, it is subjected to numerous laboratory tests for safety for human health and the value of nutrients. In this case, the GMO product must be compared with the "ordinary" one grown without changing the DNA.
Numerous scientific studies show that there is no difference in nutritional value between genetically modified foods and those grown under normal conditions.
In more than 30 years of research, not a single case has been noted when it was scientifically proven that a GMO product harmed human health. There are only numerous guesses and hypotheses related to the possible risks of genetically modified foods. And these statements still need to be verified in laboratory studies. Many scientists around the world do not stop working on the study of GMO products.
But, despite the safety for humans of genetically modified products, goods must be necessarily labeled. So the buyer will see what kind of product he is buying. A person must have a choice - to always consume ordinary fruits and vegetables, or to admit the possibility of including genetically modified fruits in the menu. ”
Laser "tattoos" on fruits instead of stickers
In the United States, thousands of complaints are received every year against companies that produce fruit and vegetable products for the local market. Buyers are unhappy with the fact that the stickers do not peel off well, sometimes deforming the fruit. And these complaints often turn into serious lawsuits for manufacturing firms. Most likely, in the near future, small stickers for labeling products in the US and European countries will be used less often, because they will be replaced by laser engraving technology.
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In 2005, scientists from Oregon proposed removing the hated paper stickers from production, and instead marking fruits with a special laser. The technology has been tested and already implemented in some American and European agro-technical enterprises. Surprisingly, the laser "tattoo" on the fruit does not in any way damage the fruit itself - the peel remains airtight, that is, bacteria do not get into the pulp. Iron hydroxides and oxides are used for marking. Laser technologies will make it possible to display information useful for the consumer as fully as possible on fruits. In this way, you can literally paint the entire surface of an apple or orange. Who knows, maybe manufacturers will eventually start selling advertising space on bananas and tangerines.
