They won't cause you any harm, but there are reasons to remove them before taking a bite.

Image source... Aileen Son for The New York Times

I keep finding myself biting apples or peaches, only to find that I have eaten half of the stickers posted there by the store. Is there any harm in eating produce stickers?

Although the stickers on fruits and vegetables will not cause any harm to you, it is best to remove them before eating them.

The PLU sticker stands for "Price Look Up" and plays an important role in grocery stores: telling the store staff how much the product is charged. In the United States, about half of the fresh produce is not delivered in packaging, so labels are the main source of information about the types of agricultural products and how they are grown. (A sticker beginning with the number 3 or 4 indicates that the product is grown in a conventional manner, and a sticker beginning with 9 indicates that the product is organically grown.)

“Because agricultural products stickers come in contact with food, the intended use of these stickers is pre-market approval by the Food and Drug Administration to ensure that any substances that may migrate into food due to the use of the stickers are safe,” one person said. A spokesperson for the agency in an email. “Because these stickers are intended to be removed before the product is consumed, the FDA’s review does not include exposure due to frequent consumption of these labels. However, due to the low toxicity of these substances, any contact caused by the occasional unintentional consumption of the stickers is not included. There will be no impact on health."

According to Ed Treacy, Vice President of Supply Chain and Sustainability of the Agricultural Products Marketing Association (PMA), the sticker is composed of three main components, and the organization invented the agricultural product sticker system decades ago. There is ink, it spells out the PLU number; there is the substrate (usually plastic, plastic composite or paper) it is printed on; there is also an adhesive, which can stick. "All three must be safe for humans," Mr. Tracy said.

Although the stickers are edible, they have no taste and no nutritional value. There is an environmental disadvantage to not removing the skin, peel and other parts you don’t eat before discarding them: producing stickers cannot be composted at home, so they will not decompose in the compost.

Speaking of making stickers biodegradable: "This is a challenge that our industry spends a lot of time, energy and money trying to solve," Mr. Trisi said. "The challenge lies in the adhesive"-find enough to stick to the fruit or vegetable in the entire supply chain.

Jean Bonhotal, director of the Cornell Waste Management Institute, said: “For something that is compostable, it must be made of natural ingredients — once alive, but now dead.” She explained. Said that every time you forget to remove the label before throwing banana peel, avocado peel or orange peel into the countertop compost bin, these scattered stickers will contaminate the compost with tiny plastic particles, which will pollute the soil where the compost is located and be discarded.

Another reason is to remove the sticker and put it in the trash can before enjoying the fruit or vegetable.