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Fruit and vegetables get inked

What do you think about this environmentally friendly way to brand products?

In Europe, fresh produce companies are using laser labelling to eliminate the use of paper labels. The machines use lasers to ‘print’ a label on the skin of produce, similarly to a tattoo, without affecting eating quality or shelf life.

The technology uses conveyor belts to feed items into the machine, where the labels are printed on the produce before it is packed and dispatched. The printing process takes a fifth of a second per piece of fruit or vegetable.

This system is being used to safely add organic and retail logos to a wide range of products, including organic pumpkins, melons, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, coconuts, mangoes, citris fruits and avocados. 

There are some growers in Australia trialling this technology, including a banana farm at Mena Creek in far north Queensland.

What do you think, should Australia adopt this innovative packaging too?

This story originally appeared at the Lucal Group website. Image credit Automation World.