You may remember a few months back I gave you a grocery guide titled, “When to Buy Organic”. I don’t know why I didn’t post about this sooner, but this is my second grocery guide for you! This is a short post, but super important for you shoppers out there.
We’ve all seen them – those little stickers on your fruits and vegetables. However, did you ever stop and think, “What do those numbers mean?” Well, I’m here to tell you all about it. So next time you’re in the grocery store, you’ll know more about where your produce came from.
The formal name for ‘that little sticker on my produce’ is actually the PLU sticker (Price Look Up Code) and has been around since 1990. Aside from telling the cashier the price of the item, it can tell you whether the fruit was organically grown, genetically modified, or produced with chemical fertilizers, herbicides or fungicides.
PLU stickers with 4 digits that begin with a 3 or a 4: the item was conventionally grown which means the produce was sprayed with chemical pesticides (i.e. 4959 as in the photo of the mangos above)
PLU stickers with 5 digits and start with an 8: the item was genetically engineered (humans intervened by manipulating the genes to produce a larger/brighter colored food) and potentially chemically treated (i.e. 84139 – genetically modified granny smith apple)
PLU stickers with 5 digits and start with a 9: the item was grown organically and not treated with any chemicals (i.e. 94001 – an organic banana)
Talk to Me
- Do you pay attention to PLU stickers?
- Which types of fruits/veggies do you always buy organic?
- How often do you buy produce?
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Thank you for the important information. You are what you eat!
Interesting! I never knew this!
me either! I read about it online this week and had to share with you guys.
This is SO helpful! My old roommate really knew about this stuff and would mention it somtimes but I never was able to actually catch what each thing meant. I’m gonna try to remember this! Thank you!
You’re welcome! Glad I could help.
I buy produce every week. I will defiantly be keeping this in mind when I go next week!
I go through produce SOOOO quickly. I go every week too.
Super important info! Keep spreading the positive nutrition messages!
Great info! Thank you for sharing.
no problem 🙂 thanks for reading/commenting
interesting! i didn’t the numbers meant anything besides for the cashiers!
me either! i’m bookmarking this on my phone so I can pull it up easily next time I’m shopping 🙂
Im not a superclean eater—BUT I am when it comes to the stickers/PLU codes.
I can’t believe I didn’t know about this sooner. Everytime I’m at the grocery store I’m going to look at them!