Stickers on Fruit
I was peeling the sticker of a plum yesterday and wondered if the world knows who it was that decided it was the right thing to do to inflict a sticker on every piece of fruit in the universe? I read on the inner-nets (so it has to be true) that the sticker can give you insight into how the fruit was grown. From the article:
For conventionally grown fruit, (grown with chemicals inputs), the PLU code on the sticker consists of four numbers. Organically grown fruit has a five-numeral PLU prefaced by the number 9. Genetically engineered (GM) fruit has a five-numeral PLU prefaced by the number 8. For example,
A conventionally grown banana would be:
4011
An organic banana would be:
94011
A genetically engineered (GE or GMO) banana would be:
84011
The numeric system was developed by the Produce Electronic Identification Board, an affiliate of the Produce Marketing Association, a Newark, Delaware-based trade group for the produce industry. As of October 2001, the board had assigned more than 1,200 PLUs for individual produce items.
Apparently, the adhesive is food grade, but you shouldn't eat the stickers.
7 comments:
Thank you Mr. Anchovy - now i will not be cussing those stickers, but checking them out - I refuse to eat tampered (genetically engineered) food - if I know about it. Organic is better but not always easy to get. But at least we have the illusion of a choice.
I find those stickers so annoying - especially when I'm at work and have to deal with them in large quantities!
my orange has 3108 on its sticker. *sigh* I hate to be thought of as 'conventional'
I think I would just as soon be blissfully ignorant!
Maybe they could be collected to form a strange collage?
People never know what to do about the stickers?! First you place the sticker on your hand,,because you are what you eat,,,then you find a place for all of them for the collage effect!
Funny I was wondering about the stickers as well, but was wondering how they never break down.
It use to drive me crazy when my sis would forget to take the stickers off her fruit & veg and they would end up in the compost with the rind etc. We'd add compost to the garden and have to pull these little stickers out of the soil. Good to know they're food grade.
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