My kids loved apples growing up. The catch was that they refused to eat the apple if there was any hint of where the sticker used to be. You couldn’t just slice off that one bit of skin either, it had to be completely peeled away. I hate peeling apples. A Swedish supermarket chain called ICA has the answer to this.
Rather than having to put stickers on each fruit or vegetable, the chain uses a frickin’ laser beam to brand the label onto them. The laser is a low-energy carbon-dioxide beam which removes a bit of pigment from the outer skin. The laser doesn’t alter the taste or consistency of the produce according to the store.
The tattoo labels started with sweet potatoes and avocados because they tend to have a hard time holding stickers, but will also cut down on the small amount of waste generated by stickers. Eventually the project will be rolled out to all 1,350 ICA stores.
[via SeattleTimes]
