Swedish supermarkets replace sticky labels with laser marking

Food retailers aiming to cut plastic packaging by ditching stickers on fruits and vegetables, instead using hi-tech ‘natural branding’.

The humble fruit sticker may seem an unlikely cause for environmental concern but removing it from produce could create huge savings in plastic, energy and CO₂ emissions. In response to consumer demand for less packaging, Dutch fruit and veg supplier Nature & More and Swedish supermarket ICA have joined forces to run a trial to replace sticky labels on organic avocados and sweet potatoes with a laser mark.

Stephane Merit, business development manager of the Spanish company behind the technology, Laser Food, says with millions of stickers used on food produce around the world everyday, the technology could make a “significant reduction in the amount of paper, ink, glue” being used as well as the cutting the energy used to produce and transport them. The laser technology also creates less than 1% of the carbon emissions needed to produce a sticker of similar size.

“By using natural branding on all the organic avocados we would sell in one year we will save 200km (135 miles) of plastic 30cm wide. It’s small but I think it adds up,” says Peter Hagg, ICA business unit manager.

“Younger shoppers also choose products depending on the environmental impact of the packaging. And we know that this will be very important in coming years. This is a solution that permanently marks the skin of the product, so it’s better from a sustainability perspective, but also avoids the problem of stickers falling off.” he says.

“Up to now, no one has used this technique with the specific aim of cutting packaging. Also, it was used for novelty” – which could be attracted consumer’s interest in the products, says Michaël Wilde, sustainability and communications manager at Nature & More.

PowerMARK C Series – The CO2 laser marker that can cut/ mark on most of non-metallic materials. Specifically, the laser can be integrated into production chains due to compact design, and take high advantages of environment friendly and causing less damages for materials, the laser is ideal for replacing sticky label on fruit and vegetables with the laser mark. For the LASER MACHINE details, CLICK HERE!