In the late 1980s, a volunteer committee of Produce Marketing Association members revolutionized retail through the introduction of price look-up (PLU) codes. Thousands of companies now use PLUs in their day-to-day operations, but daily, industry professionals have questions about which code pairs with which item, and vice versa.
Now, the International Federation for Produce Standards (IFPS), which currently governs PLU codes, has introduced a new free mobile app that allows produce growers, distributors, retailers and consumers to more easily navigate the PLU code database, says Ed Treacy, chairman of the IFPS Board of Directors and Produce Marketing Association vice president of supply chain efficiencies.
“The database now has well over 1,400 items in it, and grew from the 400-odd we started with,” he says. “You can do the same thing online going onto the ifpsglobal.com website [as you can on the app]. [But the app] allows you to do it conveniently from your smartphone.”
The app is a step forward in product identification, and one that makes numerous people’s jobs and lives easier, says Kathy Means, vice president of industry relations at Produce Marketing Association. It’s a far cry from using labeling guns in grocery stores, she says. “You’d have these clerks running around punching out ID numbers and sticking them on stuff,” she says. “The retailer was spending retail labor to sticker his stuff.” With the introduction of PLU codes, and now the app, that is less often the case.
The app, which provides information such as Latin names and specific varieties, can prove useful to anybody throughout the supply chain, Treacy says. A retailer receiving oranges, for instance, can make a distinction between navel and Valencia oranges. As a customer, Treacy himself has used the app to tell white peaches apart from the yellow ones he prefers.
Because the use of PLU codes is voluntary, they are still not regulated by a government body, so a produce item that is labeled “organic” may not always necessarily be so.
To aid fresh produce shippers who are increasingly being asked to synchronize their data, the mobile app and the enhanced website search engine now also include a link with the GS1 Global Classification Code (GPC). The GPC has been updated recently for fruit and vegetables; the app includes mapping between the PLUs and GPC for companies who use PLUs and the GS1 Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN).
The app has the ability to streamline the use of PLU codes around the world, Treacy says. Countries that have adopted the codes include Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, England, South Africa, Norway and Holland . “Two years ago, retailers in Mexico did not use the PLU system, and there was a need,” he says. “Through PMA’s efforts in combination with ANTAD, who is the retail association in Mexico, and GS1 Mexico, we led an initiative, and now the use of PLU codes in Mexican retail is pervasive. Well over the majority of the major chains are now using them.”
The app can be downloaded in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. In the Apple store, search for “Fresh PLU”; in the Google Play Store, search for “FreshPLU”. For more information about the use of PLU codes, please visit ifpsglobal.com/PLU or email plu@ifpsglobal.com