Fresh sense

Supermarket giant Tesco has signed on to use fruit labeling technology developed by New Zealand packaging specialists ripeSense. The color-coded labels let shoppers know how ripe a fruit is by responding to aromas released by fruits during the ripening process. A red label indicates a crunchy fruit; orange means firm, and yellow means juicy. The convenience of the RipeSense packaging is hoped to help lagging fruit sales compete with other snack categories, with studies showing that 85% of pear buyers believing that RipeSense will increase the frequency of their fruit purchases. Tesco is launching the new labeling on their pears, and, assuming its success, will be labeling avocados and other fruits in the same way. A number of other chains have also expressed interest in the technology, which was developed in 2004.