Many people are left wondering if the food they are buying has been genetically modified or not. Mainly because there is no law or regulation stating that the foods need to be labeled as such.

The way to find out is surprisingly easy. By reading the PLU code, you can tell if the fruit was genetically modified, organically grown or produced with chemical fertilizers, fungicides, or herbicides.

I am going to use bananas as an example. A banana that has been regularly grown with pesticides and other chemicals has the PLU # 4011.

Many people believe that a 5 digit PLU means that it is gm produce. Which is only 50% correct. I will explain.

An organic banana will. have the PLU 94011. All organic produce has a 5 digit PLU code that always starts with the number 9.

But gmo produce also has a 5 digit PLU. A genetically modified banana would have the PLU code 84011. All gm produce starts with the number 8.


Here is an example with apples. The top image to the left is a conventional MacIntosh apple PLU code of 4152.

In the bottom image it is PC organic apples with the PLU code of 94016. PLU codes vary from different companies but this method is still effective. So we see that the code starts with a 9 and it is organic. But if the code was 84016, it would be a gm apple.

So even though the big gm companies do not want their products labeled as a frankenfood, there is a loophole that health conscious people can use to determine if it is, or if it is not a gm product.

With that I will leave you with an interesting fact about gm foods:
Today, 7 out of every 10 items on grocery stores shelves contain ingredients that have been genetically modified. In other words, scientists are using new technology to transfer the genes of one species to another, and these altered foods are in the market stream. And yet many scientists have concerns about the safety to people, wildlife and the environment. That's why consumers in Asia and Europe are demanding that their food be free of genetically modified ingredients.