Product labeling with light makes packaging redundant

Photo: Nature & More

Organic fruit and vegetables are often packaged in plastic. That is hardly very sensible, often, the only reason is to apply the label. The Dutch organic trade company Nature & More wants to end this and has developed a method which can apply the printed label directly to the fruit and vegetables — and it is edible and organically certified. Nature & More, with Swedish supermarket chain ICA, wants to market organic fruit and vegetables with natural labelling, and save millions of plastic packagings this way, according to German website utopia.de.

Photo: Nature & More

Avocados and sweet potatoes should be the first products to have logos but no packaging in the ICA shops. Nature & More has calculated how much saving potential that can have: in 2015, the company sold 725,380 packagings with organic avocados to Swedish ICA supermarkets. To that end, 217 kilometres of plastic film with a width of 30 centimetres was used. That is 2,042 kilograms of plastic. The C02 emissions created by this amount to one car driving around the globe 1.3 times.

It is therefore not hard to imagine how much the saving potential could be if the entire sector throughout Europe were to switch to this method. But for now, the labelled products will only be available in Sweden — in cooperation with ICA. However, Nature & More parent company Eosta hopes that they will also be able to expand this technology to other countries.

Photo: Nature & More

Nature & More and the label of light
The new method of ‘natural labelling’ uses a concentrated beam of light to remove pigments in the outer layer of the product’s skin. Labelling only uses light and only at the outer surface of the product. According to Nature & More, it has no influence on flavour or shelf life. The fruit can be consumed as desired, with or without skin. Even the labelled spot can be eaten without any objection. According to Nature & More, the method has been approved and deemed safe by the independent Dutch organic certifier Skal, and by all authorities responsible for food safety.

Nature & More thinks this manner of labelling can also combat food waste. Organic products can now be offered loose and, despite that, will still be recognisable as organic products. In that way, supermarket customers can buy as many avocados, sweet potatoes and other products in the future as they actually need without having to choose larger packaging amounts, which then partially ends up as waste.

Organic onion with light label. Photo: Nature & More