If you have ever won­dered what those four or five digit num­bers on fruits and veg­eta­bles are for you are not alone. They actu­ally do serve a higher pur­pose beyond dri­ving busy cashiers every­where mad. Those num­bers can tell you a great num­ber of things about your favorite golden deli­cious or zuc­chini squash. Things you really should know.

Most impor­tantly these num­bers can tell us one of three things. They can tell us if our pro­duce is:

Con­ven­tion­ally Grown – This means that one or more of the fol­low­ing may have been used:

• Syn­thetic pesticides
• Fer­til­iz­ers made with syn­thetic ingre­di­ents or sewage sludge
• Syn­thetic herbicides
• Antibi­otics
• Bio­engi­neer­ing
• Added hor­mones
• Ion­iz­ing radiation

Organ­i­cally Grown — This means that the pro­duce is one that was grown with­out the above listed items for con­ven­tion­ally grown produce.

Accord­ing to United States Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture (USDA) “organic food is pro­duced by farm­ers who empha­size the use of renew­able resources and the con­ser­va­tion of soil and water to enhance envi­ron­men­tal qual­ity for future generations.”

(GMO) — Genet­i­cally Mod­i­fied Organ­ism – This means that the pro­duce has had spe­cific changes intro­duced into its DNA by genetic engi­neer­ing.

Pretty impor­tant stuff to know right?

Here is how you can tell the three apart.

A FOUR DIGIT NUMBER means it was  con­ven­tion­ally grown (they all begin with 3 or 4)

Exam­ple: 4225 Avo­cado (Hass vari­ety, large)

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A FIVE DIGIT NUMBER begin­ning with an 8 means the pro­duce is a GMO. It was genet­i­cally modified.

Exam­ple: 84225 Avo­cado (Franken­stein Vari­ety)

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A FIVE DIGIT NUMBER start­ing with a 9 means it is ORGANIC

Exam­ple: 94225 Avo­cado (the nat­ural vari­ety)

What is the big deal about con­ven­tional, organic or GMO anyway?