French supermarket Casino launches seasonal fruit and veg labels

French supermarket group Casino has launched a new system to show the seasonality of fruit and vegetables on its shelves.

Using a colour code, consumers will be able to tell which fruits or veg are seasonal and which are not. Casino has said that the new system will be informative and also raise awareness of seasonality among fresh produce.

Products will be labelled with a new sticker, which shows a hemisphere of colours from green to red, indicating if the piece of fruit or veg is in season or not.

Green will mean in season in France, yellow will mean at the start or the end of the season, and red will mean not in season.

Currently, 28 fruit and veg products are included. The system is part of Casino’s “Le vrai goût des saisons (The real flavour of the seasons)” campaign that it launched at the start of the year.

From this week, the system will be rolled out gradually across the majority of Casino stores. It will begin in hypermarkets, before moving to supermarkets next week, followed by smaller convenience stores and online.

For example, for the last two weeks of April, nine products – including asparagus and kiwis – will be green; peppers and strawberries will be yellow; and five items will be red, including grapes and leeks.

The labels will be updated regularly.

Casino has also stated that it will work to offer more seasonal produce in general. It has already said that it will not sell strawberries in its stores out of season, from November 1 to January 31.

The group is not the only supermarket to offer details on seasonality to customers; Monoprix and Auchan enable customers to view “seasonal fruit and veg” on their websites, although not yet in store.

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