Dole Prints ‘Malnutrition Labels’ From Fruit Ink To Highlight Bad Eating Habits

Dole Sunshine Company is slapping “malnutrition labels” onto billboards and signage across London to squeeze careless snacking habits to a pulp.

In a new campaign set up by the fruit distributor, signs in the form of traditional nutritional labels usually found on food packaging take on a new, zesty form—each stating the surprisingly low vitamin content and nutritional value that are in snacks.. 

 
And to drive the point home, each poster is printed with pigment made entirely from fruit waste. 

One sign, installed next to a food truck, states that the medium itself has more Vitamin C than a side of fries since it was created with blueberry ink. Another says that it has more Vitamin A and C than chicken nuggets as it was made with oranges and red grapes. 

DSC tapped into creative agencies St. Luke’s Communications and Bompas & Parr to produce the highly nutritional inks used in the advertisements. Food scientists were also engaged in helping test out the dyes, while various forms of fruit waste and scraps were experimented with to get the perfect pigment and viscosity.
 
The posters are meant to be a sort of rude awakening to the British population—which eats more junk food than the rest of Europe, according to DSC—as the dye used on promotional campaigns has more nutritional value than what people put in their bodies. 
 
On the flip side, the project also calls attention to food refuse and how it can be given a second life. DSC will be donating products to FoodShare, a charity that fights against food waste and hunger, which will then redistribute the items to 9,500 different organizations nationwide. 

 
 
 
[via LBB Online and Dole Sunshine Company, PR Newswire, images via Dole Sunshine Company]