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Top UK Supermarket Laser Prints Labels On Avocados To Reduce Waste (telegraph.co.uk)
One of the largest British retailers in London, M&S, is opting in for laser-printed barcodes to reduce paper waste. "The labels, which are etched onto fruit's skins with lasers instead of stickers, will save 10 tons of paper and five tons of glue every year according to M&S," reports The Telegraph. The labels will be etched into the skins of avocados, but "could soon be introduced to other fruit and vegetables and adopted by other supermarkets which are looking for new waste reduction techniques." The labels themselves include the shop logo, best before date, country of origin and product code for entering at the till. What's more is that the avocado's skin is the only area impacted by the lasers -- none of the fruit gets damaged. Bruce66423 writes: Print the information usually on the packaging to reduce waste. Excellent idea -- although the Aldi (the radically cheap, all own brand chain) alternative is to leave avocados untouched and get the cashiers to enter the code.
Very much so. Especially when there is a bit of glue residue left after the label has been removed. I do wonder, though, if this might effect the quality of the fruit. Avacados have thick skin, as do banannas, so they are probably ok. But apples, peaches and so on?
It doesn't work on majority of fruits. Most of the information they print is redundant. Nobody needs the shop logo. The country of origin is already printed on the bin. The product code can be memorized/looked up by the cashier. That only leaves the best-by date, which, in the case of avocados, isn't very reliable.
No the apples (like basically every other vegetable and fruit) come on a styrofoam tray wrapped in polyethylene. M&S are basically the worst for excessive packaging so this is an absolute joke. They basically do not have loose produce, everything is prewrapped in usually at least 2 layers of plastic, not useful stuff we can get recycled at the kerbside either.
My local supermarket started individually shrink-wrapping fruit for your environmentally destructive pleasure. :-(
Edible doesn't equate tasty. Even if they are flavorless, they have a texture that may clash with the fruit they're stuck to.
Yes, I know, very much a First-World problem, but let's be honest here, so is buying tropical fruits in areas where you dig in a pile of snow to find your car in Winter.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Kiwis aren't fruit, they're birds.
They're also endangered so you shouldn't be eating them either.
Or do you mean Kiwifruit?
Interesting question, is the time saved by not washing worth risking occasional food poisoning ?
Answer: only to those who have not yet experienced food poisoning, esp. Something serious like e.coli
To produce three avocados, you need 264 gallons of water = 1m^3 = 1000 liters. That is more water than consumed by a child in one year.
Children consume a lot more water. For instance, if your child eats 1 avocado per month, they are already 4 times over that amount.
In the UK Kiwis are fruit. They may alternately be flightless birds but we generally encounter the fruit more frequently.
Nobody here calls it kiwifruit.
Yeah, not being able to tell the difference doesn't mean that over time there isn't one.