Cracking the Frankenfood Code  [View All]

By Kristen Philipkoski

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,60911,00.html

02:00 AM Oct. 22, 2003 PT

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Recently, the organic side of the fence has been whispering about a sneaky way to identify genetically modified fruits and vegetables. Shhh, don't tell the biotechs, but you know those little stickers that are really annoying to get off when you're washing a tomato? The numbers on them can tell you if the tomato is genetically modified! That's the word on the street.

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Those stickers carry price look-up, or PLU, codes which are generated by the Produce Marketing Association for inventory and standardization purposes. They're the numbers grocery checkout clerks used to punch in manually, but now scanners read and feed them into the stores' computer systems. Yes, unique codes exist for organic, conventionally grown and genetically modified items. But grocers only use them if they want to, making PLU codes an unreliable labeling system for consumers.

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Various publications have generated a buzz around the PLU system recently. For example, a letter to the editor in the October issue of Gourmet magazine described the number code's meaning: four digits for conventionally grown, five digits beginning with 9 for organic, and five digits beginning with 8 for genetically modified. Similar articles have appeared in Sunset magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Times Union of Albany, New York, and various other newspapers that picked up a Knight Ridder wire story on the PLU numbers.




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Another reason the numbers aren't so useful is because almost no genetically engineered whole fruits or vegetables are available. The genetically modified foods more common in stores now are ingredients in processed food, specifically corn, rapeseed (in canola oil) and soy. Processed foods don't carry PLU codes.
For now you will find only one item labeled with a PLU number beginning with an eight at fruit stands: papaya from Hawaii, according to Craig Culp at the Center for Food Safety. ....

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http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,60911,00.html

A lot of the stores in my area and my local costco have these annoying stickers on each piece of fruit and sometimes vegetables -- now it sounds like they might be useful. Wonder how long it will take for Monsanto to cry foul.