Food labels

I came across something yesterday in a magazine I never thought to investigate further.

Today, I did.

You know those little round or oval shaped stickers on fruits and veggies? Each piece of fruit or veggie usually has one, at least here in Canada (and I would suspect in North America in general).

Well, upon closer inspection, I noticed that the little sticker has a number on it. Not with a barcode, but with words and/or with some identifying logo.

For example, my butternut squash had an oval, white sticker with green and red remarks on it. The largest part of the sticker was a 4-digit number. Above the number it said ‘Queen Victoria’ inside a logo, and below it, it said ‘Product of Argentina’.

So what does the number mean?

Well, according to the magazine I recently read, it states that the number indicates how the produce was grown. In terms of pesticide, non-pesticide (aka organic) or genetically modified food.

4-digits = conventional harvesting (with pesticides)

5-digits beginning with 9 = organic origins

5-digits beginning with 8 = generically modified food (GM)

So my butternut squash has 4759 on it. Guess it has pesticides in it. At least it was traditionally harvested (and planted, I guess).

Now isn’t that lovely? How come this isn’t more widely advertised?