The humble fruit sticker may seem an unlikely cause for environmental
concern but removing it from produce could create huge savings in
plastic, energy and CO2 emissions.Get more news about
Sticky Label,you can vist our website!
In
response to consumer demand for less packaging, Dutch fruit and veg
supplier Nature & More and Swedish supermarket ICA have joined
forces to run a trial to replace sticky labels on organic avocados and
sweet potatoes with a laser mark.
Dubbed “natural branding”, the
technique uses a strong light to remove pigment from the skin of
produce. The mark is invisible once skin is removed and doesn’t affect
shelf life or eating quality.By using natural branding on all the
organic avocados we would sell in one year we will save 200km (135
miles) of plastic 30cm wide. It’s small but I think it adds up,” says
Peter Hagg, ICA business unit manager.
The laser technology also creates less than 1% of the carbon emissions needed to produce a sticker of similar size.
Stephane
Merit, business development manager of the Spanish company behind the
technology, Laser Food, says with millions of stickers used on food
produce around the world everyday, the technology could make a
“significant reduction in the amount of paper, ink, glue” being used as
well as the cutting the energy used to produce and transport them.The
sustainability saving is particularly important for organic shoppers,
who now account for almost a fifth of all ICA’s fruit and veg sales,
says Hagg. “Organic sales are driven by environmental awareness, like
climate change and belief in health benefits. Younger shoppers also
choose products depending on the environmental impact of the packaging.
And we know that this will be very important in coming years,” he says.
Switching
from plastic to cardboard is a bonus, but selling organic produce as
loose is even better says Hagg. Yet under EU rules all items need to be
marked hence the need for stickers if selling loose.This is a solution
that permanently marks the skin of the product, so it’s better from a
sustainability perspective, but also avoids the problem of stickers
falling off.”
Laser Food’s technology has been around for several
years but has previously been used for marketing or branding, without
being explicitly linked to sustainability.
“Up to now, no one has
used this technique with the specific aim of cutting packaging. It was
used for novelty – which is nice, but a gimmick at Easter or Christmas
isn’t going to pay off,” says Michaël Wilde, sustainability and
communications manager at Nature & More. “What we are saying is, by
buying this product you’re saving plastic.”
