Whether you eat them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or use them to make tasty dips or dessert, avocados are a popular grocery item for many.
Tesco sells almost 70 million avocados are sold by each year, with demand for the green fruit growing by 15% over the last 12 months.
And if you’re someone who buys a lot of them, you might notice a major change coming to Tesco supermarkets very soon.
In a bid to be more eco-friendly the retailer will be removing stickers from some of its avocados and using lasers to ‘tattoo’ information onto the skin as part of a trial.
The high-powered lasers will remove a tiny section of the top layer of skin and etch size information onto the avocado, with all of this being completed in a third of a second.
Tesco claims that by doing this, they could stop using nearly a million plastic stickers on loose extra large avocados, based on current sales information.
As part of the trial, the laser etchings will first be put onto extra large avocados as they will give the most visual impact.
Westfalia Fruit, which supplies avocados to Tesco, says these avocados are the perfect product for the trial due to the thickness of the outer skin.
The Spalding-based avocado company has been conducting extensive trials of their own to ensure that the quality, shelf life, and taste of the green fruit isn’t impacted by the laser.
Around 270 Tesco stores in the south-east will be ditching the stickers for the laser etchings over the coming weeks, and if feedback from customers is positive, the change will later be rolled out nationwide.
In addition to this, the retailer is also running another trial, which sees the plastic tray packaging for two of its most popular avocado lines switched to a recyclable cardboard container.
If rolled out across all Tesco stores, it would save more than 20 million pieces of plastic tray packaging from the twin-packs, increasing to 25 million pieces across the pre-packaged range.
Lisa Gilbey, Tesco’s avocado buyer, said: ‘We’re always looking for innovative ways to reduce the environmental impact of our products, and cut down on plastic waste in the home through changes to our packaging.
‘We’re really excited to hear customer feedback on our new laser-etched avocados, avoiding the need for a barcode sticker that can easily be forgotten and left on when recycling through household food waste.’
Westfalia Fruit general manager, Graham Isaac, added: ‘We continually seek ways to improve our environmental performance and operate in a responsible manner, by focusing on priorities such as reducing – and wherever possible, removing – plastic from our packaging to contribute to solving the plastic waste challenge.
‘We are confident that, with a clear focus and united effort as an industry, we will be able to significantly reduce our waste, use natural resources responsibly and protect the environment and biodiversity for all our futures.’
The laser-etched avocados have been rolling out to stores over the last few weeks, and will be hitting all stores taking part in the trial over the next few days.
This comes after the supermarket recently announced it was making a change to its meal deal.
In honour of British Sandwich Week, the supermarket introduced eight new limited-edition mains to its lunchtime selection. The new products are inspired by global holiday destinations, including tastes of the Mediterranean and Japan.
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New sarnies include the Tesco Summer Edition Smokehouse Pulled Pork & BBQ Bean Sub, Greek Style Chicken Gyros Wrap, and the Japanese Style Yuzu Chicken Sandwich.
The meal deal is available to customers for £3.90 – or £3.40 for Clubcard holders.
Fans of the Premium Meal Deal (£5.50 or £5.00 for Clubcard members) can also enjoy the Tesco Finest Summer Edition Argentinian Chimichurri Sandwich with chilli and herb bread.
Also on offer is the Indian Style Miso Masala Chicken Wrap, which includes miso masala chicken with red cabbage, mango chutney, and a spinach and rocket salad enveloped in a spiced tortilla wrap.
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