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posted by mrpg on Saturday May 06 2017, @10:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the bananas-and-lasers dept.

The 'natural branding' process marks the outermost layer of peel without using ink or affecting taste and shelf life.

Plastic produce stickers might be a thing of the past if Swedish supermarket ICA has its way. The chain, with more than 1,300 stores across Sweden, began experimenting last December with 'natural branding,' a process that imprints a fruit or vegetable peel with its name, country of origin, and code number using a laser. The low-energy, carbon dioxide laser burns away the first layer of pigment to a clearly legible result that uses no ink or additional products. It is a superficial, contact-free method that does not affect taste or shelf life.

This innovation is welcome news for shoppers familiar with the irritation of having to pick stickers off while washing produce prior to eating. Especially for those striving to reduce plastic waste, it's highly annoying to have to pick off stickers in the produce aisle and placate grumpy cashiers who don't like looking up produce codes.

No more annoying plastic stickers.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @06:02PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @06:02PM (#505491)

    The real advantage of the branding is that it uses less energy overall and you can't switch the stickers. So, once that fruit is branded, it's a real challenge to change it if you want to switch organic for a conventional apple, you can't just switch the labels.

    The lasers are great because they just require energy and you can get the energy from solar power and cut the emissions from that tiny part of the process to near zero.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @08:58PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @08:58PM (#505550)

    I'm confident that switching stickers on produce is not a significant problem.