There are numerous rumors about secret codes on fruits and vegetables in supermarkets. Sometimes, products have small stickers with numbers, known as 'price lookup codes' or PLU codes.
Related topic: What secret codes in IKEA actually mean
Do these numbers really indicate whether the products are produced through organic farming or treated with pesticides? The answer to this question exists.
How to decipher secret codes on fruits and vegetables
In reality, organic products, for example, have numbers ranging from 84000 to 84999 and from 93000 to 94999.
PLU codes are used in German supermarkets alongside GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) and QR codes used for product identification. Therefore, they function like barcodes.
Lidl and Aldi Nord, for instance, claim to use PLU codes in the fruit and vegetable sections, as well as on bakery shelves. Consequently, such codes can be found on products sold without packaging.
The codes are assigned by the International Federation for Produce Standards (IFPS) for various products, and they are standardized globally.
Stickers with PLU codes actually indicate whether the products are produced in traditional or organic farming. According to frequently asked questions provided by the certifying body as of January 2023, four-digit codes denote conventionally grown products.
Five-digit codes starting with the number 9 indicate organic products. The digit 9 is simply added before the code of the corresponding conventional product.
There is no separate PLU code for genetically modified products. Although it was once possible to identify them by the prefix 8, according to IFPS information, it was never used in retail.
According to the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL), genetically modified varieties of fruits and vegetables are currently not approved or applied for in the EU.
To obtain sufficient information about the cultivation method, consumers should ask store staff.
In essence, this is good advice because buyers often have more rights when making purchases than they think. Because PLU codes are only used to determine the correct price of the item at the checkout or to control its availability.
According to IFPS, they are not intended to convey information to consumers.
Related topics:
These four-digit PLU codes on fruits and vegetables in supermarkets signify that the products are conventionally grown. Five-digit codes starting with the number 9 indicate organic products, as the digit 9 is added before the code of the corresponding conventional product.
