传统种植（会施放化肥）的水果是４位数标签，如苹果red delicious 4015，如果是有机种植（不含化学肥料）的，标签是94015，5位数，以数字9起头．如果是转基因的以数字8开头, 即84015. 如果在超市里看到以8开头的5位数PLU，再便宜也不要买．有害身心．
while unpacking groceries, you pull out the bag of apples and decide to eat one then and there. you take it over to the sink, wash it off and with some effort, peel off the little sticker. pausing to look more closely at the sticker you wonder, “what do those numbers means?”.
As much as we may dislike them, the stickers or labels attached to fruit do more than speed up the scanning process at the checkout stand.
The PLU code, or price lookup number printed on the sticker, tells you how the fruit was grown. as reported by Maria Gallagher, in the June 26, 2002 issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer, by reading the PLU code, you can tell if the fruit was genetically modified, organically grown or produced with chemical fertilizers, fungicides, or herbicides. Here’s how it works:
For conventionally grown fruit, (grown with chemicals inputs), the PLU code on the sticker consists of four numbers. Organically grown fruit has a five numeral PLU prefaced by the number 9. Genetically engineered (GM) fruit has a five numeral PLU prefaced by the number 8. For example,
a conventionally grown banana would be : 4011
an organic banana would be: 94011
a genetically engineered (GE or GMO) banana would be : 84011
the numeric system was developed by the Produce electronic identification board, an affiliate of the produce marketing association, a Newark, Delaware-based trade group for the produce industry. As of October 2001, the board has assigned more than 1,200 PLUs for individual produce items. Incidentally, the adhesive used to attach the stickers is considered food-grade, but the stickers themselves aren’t edible.
