Collecting Produce Labels - Browsing the Fruitbowl

November 20, 8:38 PMCollectibles ExaminerMark Tylicki

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Next month collectors are going bananas in Costa Rica

It doesn't necessarily take thousands of dollars to have a beautiful collection.  In the case of produce labels it can be an investment in your health.  Stealing them might upset the checkout folks who might not necessarily be able to distinguish between Manzano or Cavendish.  So, buy an apple and get a free sticker.

Banana and other fruit labels can be found at any grocery store or farmer's market near you.  Produce labels first appeared in the 1920s.  While, Chiquita first started experimenting with colored labels in the 1960s.  The first collectors came somewhere in between and today they number in the thousands worldwide.  There's a variety of produce from many countries, primarily fruit, with different stickers.  For shoppers they help distinguish size, grower, type or country of origin.  For collectors, they're colorful, artistic and fun.  In some cases the labels can serve as a history lesson in politics or deep dive into culture.

In the 1980's grocery stores started using price lookup codes.  The "PLU's" or "Pseals" provide sticker seekers with another option for categorization.  More details on PLUs, developed by the International Federation for Produce Standards, can be found here.  In addition, each type of fruit or vegetable can drive a separate sub-group of collectors or fans.  So, it's possible to collect Pseals or just Papaya seals.  This can provide multiple ways to collect from a particular season to group of countries where the food is grown.

Like other hobbies, there are a host of terms associated with produce labels.  Paper that passes through our hands on a daily basis that is not intended for preservation is referred to as ephemera.  Fruit and vegetable stickers are just one example of these "documents".  Collectors usually store produce labels in albums or binders for easy viewing.  Many more collections are proudly offered on the web.  Often they are categorized by color, text, country or type of fruit.  Collector Roger Harris has an incredible site with thousands of images neatly organized - click here to view.