Produce distributors are beginning to abandon the application of price look up codes or "PLU" stickers, the traditional labels on fruits and vegetables, to adopt a new way of expressing information about the products in the grocery store.
Instead of stickers, produce distributors will now mark fruit with lasers.
Instead of using ink, this new form of labeling will imprint information on fruit by removing the fruit's pigment in the shape of the information.
"Anytime a new technology is introduced there are a whole set of behaviors wrapped around it, but a tool is not just introduced, it also influences how people interact with it," said Michelle R. Worosz, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology.
The technology uses a low-energy carbon dioxide laser beam to imprint information on the first few outer cells of produce, said Jan Narcisco, microbiologist at the Agriculture Research Services Citrus and Subtropical Products Laboratory, Winter Haven, Fla.
"Once etched, the information cannot be distorted, peeled off, washed off or changed," Narisco said.
According to agandfoodlaw.com, the technology is not designed to combat climate change.
It's designed to improve the traceability of fruit and vegetables.
According to phototonics.com, the laser labeling technology is being developed and tested by ARS, the principal intramural scientific research agency of the US Department of Agriculture.
"Traceability of produce is fine for larger packers and shippers such as Dole or Sunkist Growers Inc., but that is one more piece of technology that a small-scale producer will not be able to afford," Worosz said.
According to FoodProductionDaily.com, the laser label offers a more reliable and quicker way to improve the security of produce and to check its progress through shipping or at supermarket checkout lines.
The embedded labels also do not change the taste, quality or durability of the product, according to FoodProductionDaily.com.
"From a physiological stand point, laser beam etching to destroy pigment in a limited number of cells in the peel of a piece of produce would not leave anything residual that would be harmful to the consumer," said J. Raymond Kessler Jr., extension floriculturist in the Department of Horticulture.
This new form of labeling is safer for consumers than using stickers, because the produce is not being handled and sometimes stickers labeling the food fall off, said Greg Drouillard, former University of Florida scientist and director of research technology for laser development for Sunkist Growers Inc.
Drouillard is the inventor of the idea to laser etching information on produce, according to The Packer, a Web site and trade publication for packing industries.
"It is a food safety aspect that provides a true and certified way of tracing fruits and vegetables due to the permanence of the label that is tamper-proof and non-transferable," Drouillard said.
In 2002, Durand-Wayland, a fruit grower and distributor in Georgia, bought the patent for the process.
According to NYTimes.com, Drouillard now works for Sunkist Growers Inc. and Durand-Wayland, and he said the process permanently tattoos each piece of fruit, removing only the outer pigment to reveal a contrasting layer underneath and make the tattoo readable, even scannable without harming the fruit.
"Sunkist Growers Inc. wants its produce to be traceable if a distributor or consumer has a problem or complaint about a product," Drouillard said.
According to an article in the Nov. 13, 2005, issue of Time magazine, this concept was also named one of the best inventions of 2005.
"Fruits and vegetables with tattoos are currently available in New Zealand and Australia and are expected to be seen in America by 2010," Drouillard said.
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