You can find many types of fruit in the supermarket, and they often have stickers on them. Some say you can eat these, but is that really the case?
Why are there stickers on fruit?
In the past, stickers were on your vegetables and fruits because it was easier for cashiers to enter the price, but digitalization means this is no longer necessary. Yet they are still on it. Why? Because these stickers provide information about how and where the product was grown. Does the code consist of four digits? Then pesticides were used while growing fruit. Are there five numbers, and is the first a nine? Then it is organically grown fruit. Sometimes certain fruits do not have stickers, depending on where and how they are packaged: if they are packed in the field, they probably do not have stickers. But if they go through a sorting machine, you can often find the stickers. Fruit that comes in a container or bag also does not contain a sticker, because the product information can be found on the bulk packaging.
Edible paper
Some say that you can eat stickers on fruit because they are made from eating paper. Well, that’s not the case. The components of these stickers are not poisonous, but they are not edible either, and the same goes for the glue.
Glue and ink
A special glue is used to ensure that the stickers are properly attached to the fruit. This is for food safety. This glue is made from starch, making it biodegradable and safe to eat. The ink has also been adapted for food safety: This means that no harmful substances can get into or on the fruit.
Harmless
It’s not tasty, but that doesn’t mean that if it happens accidentally, you don’t have to worry about eating the sticker. Your body can excrete these components very well. An attempt was even made to make the stickers from paper and stick them on fruit, but that had negative effects: mold can develop due to the moisture that the paper absorbs, and brown spots appear more quickly on the fruit.
Waste
Eating the stickers is not harmful to your health, but it is certainly not good for the environment. Four to five percent of organic waste is contaminated, partly due to the stickers found on fruits such as apples, tangerines and bananas. Therefore, do not forget to remove the stickers from the fruit before throwing it in the trash. If you haven’t already eaten them, of course.
