Together with the Swedish supermarket chain ICA, Nature & More is launching organic fruit and vegetables with natural labelling on the market, replacing millions of items of plastic packaging. Avocados and sweet potatoes are the first products to reach ICA shops with logos but without outer packaging.
In most cases, organic avocados reach supermarket shelves with outer packaging, as they are recognisable as organically produced products and can be distinguished from their conventional counterparts. distinguishable have to be. Supermarkets also want to prevent higher-priced organic goods from being labelled as conventional goods at the checkout. The same applies to sweet potatoes, apples, kiwis and many other fruits from sustainable agriculture. Stickers, e.g. with the organic logo or the EU organic seal, can be a solution, but they also require the use of paper, inks, paints or glues.
With the new method of natural labelling, Nature & More now applies an organic seal or customer logo to a fruit without using any kind of packaging material. Exclusively with a focussed light beam pigments are removed from the outermost layer of the skin. The labelling only takes place on the surface of the fruit and therefore has no effect on the taste or shelf life. The fruit can be eaten as normal with or without the skin - even the labelled area is safe to eat. The process has been approved and declared safe by the independent Dutch organic certifier Skal and all authorities responsible for food safety.
Save resources
Nature & More expects to save plastic and energy through natural labelling. According to Nature & More, it sold 725,380 packs of organic avocados to Swedish ICA supermarkets in 2015, using 217 km of plastic film with a width of 30 cm. This is the equivalent of 2,042 kg of plastic. According to Nature & More, the resulting CO2 emissions are equivalent to travelling around the world 1.3 times by car. Natural labelling eliminates this.
In addition, the labelling of the Food waste against: Organic products can now be sold loose and still remain recognisable as organic. In future, supermarket customers will be able to buy as many avocados, sweet potatoes etc. as they really need and will no longer have to buy larger packaging units, the leftovers of which will later end up in the bin.
Paul Hendriks, packaging expert at Nature & More, is very pleased with the new method: „The most sustainable packaging method is: no packaging! Natural labelling now closes the gap between recognisability as an organic product and saving packaging material. We are delighted to be taking the initiative here together with ICA and actually bringing naturally labelled products to the shops. Plastic packaging for organic products will hopefully soon be a thing of the past.“
