Stuff We Like: Fresh Fruit Stickers

Summer's here and time is right not only for dancing in the streets -- we think -- but for eating lots of sweet, delicious fruit. But while many varieties of fresh fruit are currently in season, not all fruit is grown in the same way. Hence, this fascinating sticker factoid: those little stickers that come on fresh fruits can tell you how they were grown.

All fruit labels feature a price look up (PLU) number. According to J-tech Systems, fruits that were grown organically feature a PLU number beginning with 9, such as 98045, while those that were grown conventionally have a four digit code beginning with 4, such as 4590.

Another fascinating morsel -- while grocery stores are not currently required to note which fruits and vegetables are genetically modified, produce featuring genes that were tinkered with in the lab feature a five digit number beginning with 8, such as 87590.

Regardless of how your fruit was raised, you'll want to remove that sticker before eating it (but don't worry about any residual adhesive -- that's food-grade).