To be suspicious of Lasering on fruit and Veg instead of labels?

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

It's been approved info here andfruit and veg will be hitting the shops with lasered barcodes and brands instead of sticky labels.

It's more environmentally friendly apparently. What I don't like is that the actual fruit has now been altered in a way...it's physical self is not pure any longer. Also, suppliers will now be able to tell where the fruit has been sold.

Why worry about that you say? Well the fact that Monsanto have patents out on a variety of vegetables worries me.

How long before this company is controlling all fruit and vegetables? And saying which countries can sell which fresh produce?

They only need to whack their laser mark on the food they "own" and that's their stamp and their trademark.

I also don't like the look of those lasered apples...you can see the flesh!

Oh no, have you ever tried to get one of those stickers off a school jumper?
They do.not.come.off.

It'll be burned in - it won't wash off or that'd miss the point.

If a label has come off, the cashier swipes a book of labels, so the same information ends up in the database, whether it is a label or a barcode.

And the article only talks about it being ok'd for citrus fruits, melons, and pomegranates - all of which get peeled.

Chunky labels aren't as reliable though as they can come off or be swapped so they would not gather the info that way.

Of course they gather information that way! Who swaps labels on apples fgs (which would be stealing too) - There is nothing special about the barcode - it's just a number, which relates back to their stock levels/price/other information (which yes, is undoubtedly mined), but is no different to any other way of identifying this apple.

If they couldn't already identify how many pink lady apples they had and had sold, how would their automated systems order more?

Well so long as no one's lasering my apples, I don't care.

Well they will be Arbitrary. THey'll all be lasered. And they don't look as nice in a bowl! Won't somebody think of the fruit bowls!

The sticky labels on most fruit and veg are pointless though. They aren't individually priced; you buy mushrooms and carrots and onions and apples by weight or they come in pre-priced cellophane bags (with barcodes on them). What you get is an apple telling you it's an apple.

I will not be buying lasered apples. And I think most people will feel the same way. Thus, they're unlikely to reman lasered for long.

Is lasering of fruit less "natural" than the adhesives used to stick labels on them?

I'd buy lasered apples... no worse than any other blemish on them.

I think the labels are mainly for poor shop assistants like I was back when I was younger to make telling the braeburns from the cox's orange pippins easier.

Otherwise they need to make sure that the posh lemons are packaged differently to the cheapy ones so some knackered cashier doesn't just put everything through on the same code.

I don't care whether lasered fruit is 'natural' or not. I don't want them purposefully damaging my apple skin. I have a root around and avoid choosing the bruised apples too.

I would like to know a bit more about this too. As far as I can tell its not a dye that can be washed off but that the laser causes the pigmentation in the skin of the product to change. So it is being altered somehow. I dont think it has been tested for safety, its just being assumed to be safe (please correct me if I am wrong, I am asking the question really)

However, I think the concept is a good one because the information carried is very important for determining country or area of origin. This means that you can be sure where a food came from, and in developed nations there are traceability programs that allow you to follow a product from cultivation, the production chain, all the way through transportation right to the supermarket. This means you can be sure it hasnt come from an area that is contaminated (which happens a lot with smuggled foods in Latin America for example, where they are only just starting to implement traceability programs) So it ensures better food safety in that sense.

I would like to know if it has been tested for safety though, as a new food or drug product would be.

ok its something to do with ...

" oxides and iron hydroxides (E 172), when applied to the surface of fruits or vegetables after depigmentation of certain parts (for example by laser), improving the contrast of these with the rest of the surface, by interacting with certain components released in the epidermis. This effect can be used to mark fruits or vegetables."

sorry the source of that is the EU regulation number 510/2013 which allows the use of this method.

eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:150:0017:0020:EN:PDF

apologies again, must learn to proof read!

"iron oxides and hydroxides (E 172) as a contrast enhancer, hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (E 464) as a glazing agent and polysorbates (E 432-436) as emul­sifiers"

all of which I have NO idea if they are scary things or not (certainly dont sound too tasty!) and I would like to know if they have been tested for safety. Does anyone know?

Oh Lord, how long before fruit and veg is plastered with lasered advertising - aimed at kids naturally

Well Bee as someone up thread said, we'll have apples with Peppa Pig on them and I thought (more darkly) and McDonalds.

Also how does it affect composting?

MummyAbroad, if the additives have been given E-numbers then they have been tested for safety.

ahhhh, thanks snorbs!

I won't be buying any of it

FDA looked into it and says that it is OK

www.theproducenews.com/index.php/news-dep-menu/test-featured/8158-fda-approves-laser-technology-for-etching-citrus-fruit

www.federalregister.gov/articles/2012/06/11/2012-14035/irradiation-in-the-production-processing-and-handling-of-food

Will totally put me off eating fruit and veg.

I don't really see the difference between having the info lasered on vs a label either. I'm not sure what information you are concerned about the producers having OP? That an apple they produced was sold? They know that anyway.

The article OP linked to said the lasering process was rejected for food safety since 2009, but now the oxides (dyes, I presume) have been approved. I'm not bothered about that - or about marking the skins of bananas - but share the general discomfort about marked skin on thinner-skinned produce. I guess I'll get used to it, but it feels wrong. I prefer not to see evidence of all the processes my carrots have been through since they were underground in a Polish field!

I am a bit twitchy about Monsanto, but can't see how this method of marking produce will give them any more power than other methods.

Never mind the health issues which may or may not exist, the lasered fruit just looks wrong. I don't think I would buy it.