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How can you tell if it’s organic or conventional?
Ready to decipher the produce sticker on your avocados and mangoes? The amount of digits isn’t random; they give you a clue as to how it was grown.
“PLUs are either four or five digits,” Salchenberg said. “A four-digit PLU means that the item is conventionally grown, and five-digit PLUs beginning with the number 9 represent a certified organic item.”
The numbers are used globally. So, no matter where you are in the world, you can figure out what the code means.
“So, 4011 is a yellow Cavendish banana from coast-to-coast,” Salchenberg said.
Five-digit codes beginning with the number 8 once were intended for GMO produce items, which are genetically modified, but were never used at retail because so few growers opted to voluntarily label GMO produce items.
“The leading 8 now has no significance to growing type,” Shales said.
Why doesn’t all produce have a sticker?
There are some circumstances where a piece of fruit may be without a sticker. Whether an item receives one has to do with where and how it’s packaged.
“Fruits and vegetables can be field packed, or packed in a production facility,” Shales said. “At Stemilt, we place a PLU sticker on the packing line right after it goes through a sizing and sorting machine that uses images to electronically size and sort the fruit based on its qualities.”
Bagged or boxed produce won’t have a sticker, because it’s sold differently and usually has its own barcode. The size of the produce also influences whether it gets its own PLU.
“Large-ish items with hearty skins are the most common, like eggplant and sweet potatoes, but even fragile items like tomatoes often get a sticker, whenever they are sold individually and not packaged in a bag, box, clamshell or other container,” Myers said.
If you’ve noticed that fruit seems to a sticker more often than vegetables, you’re right.
“PLU stickers are more common on fruit than vegetables or herbs,” Shales said. Sometimes the sticker goes on the wrapping, often with herbs. “Cilantro, for instance, has a PLU code as an identifier for grocery checkout, but it is wrapped on the bundle because a sticker wouldn’t adhere to a bundle of cilantro,” Shales said.
In Europe, you’ll likely see fewer PLUs, since a lot of produce is prepackaged. “Apples in many European countries aren’t sold bulk or individually, so they won’t have a sticker. They are sold in packages,” Shales said.
“Don’t be concerned if unpackaged produce does NOT have a sticker,” Myers said. “There are very few small-scale growers who sticker their produce — just think about the labor involved in hand-applying a sticker to every tomato coming out of the field.”
Are stickers safe to eat?
Produce stickers aren’t intended to be eaten. But if you accidentally swallow one while biting into a juicy peach, there’s no need to panic.
“The stickers themselves are not toxic and neither is the adhesive used to apply them to the produce,” Salchenberg said. “If the stickers are accidentally ingested, there should be no cause for concern.”
It’s best to remove the stickers and rinse produce before eating, Salchenberg advised.
And when you peel off these stickers, place them in the trash can. The labels are not biodegradable and will not break down in your compost pile or compost bin.
This post originally appeared on HuffPost.
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