Can you eat the sticker on an apple?
Since learning these tips for recognizing a delicious apple, you naturally only bite into crisp and juicy apples, instead of those nasty floury ones. And sometimes, in an unguarded moment, you might accidentally nibble on the sticker too. But can you actually eat those apple stickers?
Why a sticker?
There’s a reason stickers are placed on apples. Not only do they make it easy to tell an Elstar from a Jonagold in the fruit bowl, but the code printed on them also means more than you might think. These so-called PLU codes show how the apples were grown. Organically grown apples, for example, have a five-digit code that starts with a 9 or 84. So those stickers are handy, but you can’t eat them.
Don’t panic
One of the stories that goes around about stickers on apples is that they would be edible because they are made from edible paper. But that’s nonsense. The stickers are made from plastic or non-edible paper. Don’t panic if you accidentally swallow one every once in a while. Your body simply transports the sticker neatly out again. The glue on the stickers, some of which may remain on the apples, is also not toxic or dangerous. The glue is starch-based and therefore completely safe to eat.
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