Reading Labels on Fruit and Veggies

[Robin Plan]

We hear daily to read labels on packages of food, pet food cleaning products, vitamins and more, but did you know fruits and vegetables have important labels also? Today the banana might not be just an average banana. If you care about how your food is grown the label tells all. As much as we may dislike them, the stickers or labels attached to fruit do more than speed up the scanning process at the checkout stand. The PLU code, or price lookup number printed on the sticker, tells you how the fruit was grown.

As reported by Maria Gallagher, in the June 26, 2002 issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer, by reading the PLU code, you can tell if the fruit was genetically modified, organically grown or produced with chemical fertilizers, fungicides, or herbicides.

Here's how it works:
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
Note: All combinations of the four-digit code beginning with the numeral "4" have been used up, so new labels beginning with the numeral "3" will also be used to designate conventionally raised produce.

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.

Incidentally, the adhesive used to attach the stickers is considered food-grade, but the stickers themselves aren't edible.

*Do you REALLY know what's in your dinner? If you care about how your "food" is grown this might be of interest to you.

Today, 7 out of every 10 items on grocery stores shelves contain ingredients that have been genetically modified. In other words, scientists are using new technology to transfer the genes of one species to another, and these altered foods are in the market stream. And yet many scientists have concerns about the safety -- to people, wildlife and the environment -- of this process. That's why consumers in Asia and Europe are demanding that their food be free of genetically modified ingredients.

To learn more about food safety, GM (genetically modified) foods and what's wrong with them, and what you can do bring about changes:

Organic Consumers Association Campaigning for food safety, organic agriculture, fair trade and sustainability
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