Is That A Tattoo On Your Peach?

New Technology For Tracking Food

(CBS)  Unless you're growing your own fruits and vegetables in your home, you've probably seen an array of fruits and vegetables that have these teeny stickers on them.

A big problem with these stickers is that you can't get them off without damaging the fruit.

But now, The Early Show's Julie Chen and Rene Syler report, there's new technology called tattooed, or "laser-coded," fruit, and it uses the same sort of laser technology that is used in surgery: it cuts and cauterizes at the same time.

Does this permanently damage the fruit? Apparently, it does not.

Durand-Wayland of LaGrange, Ga., which holds the patent on this laser technology, says laser coding is an "all natural, edible label." It's permanent, and it may be a better way to track and trace food.

Syler says one of the aims of tattooed fruit is to keep track of what Americans eat, whether for profit or security reasons

So consumers may have two options now: tattooed fruit or stickers.

That's good news for people who have trouble getting those stickers off. Syler says it took one woman a half hour to get all these stickers off her purchases. The next morning, she woke up and had two stickers trapped her hair.