Banana Label Types

Banana Label Types

Banana labels stick on bananas and that's our definition of banana labels. But when you look around in the supermarkets of the world, you will see different kind of banana labels. You can find for example wrappers to keep several bananas together. Or you will find bananas in plastic bags and the brand information sticks on this bags. This article does give some examples of what we have found and try to categorize it. These catagories are not free from overlaps.

Please bear in mind, we also have a classification of catalog entries. For example are all the different Kellogg's label from Dole in an own catalog entry. Each individulal label is from type banana label and the whole catalog entry 'Dole: Kellogg's' is from type promotion. But this is a different story we do not discuss in this article.

For each of the following label types you can find examples with the help of our search function. Just click at the type and you will be lead to the search page with all labels of this specific kind:

  • Bag Label
    Bag labels stick on the plastic packaging and not on the banana itself. Quite often we find this kind of labels in Japan where many fruits are covered in plastic, but it was also found in Germany used for the small apple bananas. However, because this kind of labels does not stick on bananas, not every collector collects this bag labels.
     
  • Banana Label
    95% of our labels are of the classic kind 'banana label'. All other categories in this catalog are only in the sum 5% of what we have found. John: "The Cambodia-Thailand trip was very good, and quite rewarding label wise. One interesting element was large size labels which we normally associate with bag or wrapper labels, but on my trip I often found the big ones directly on bananas-- but it varied from store to store with the same label. So I will classify them as banana labels."
     
  • Box Label
    Box labels lie in the big large box in which bananas are delivered to the supermarked or stick at them. Usually the packer at a packing station have to put their ID at each box they are packing, so later when complains exist, the companies does now who was not careful enough to pack the bananas into the box. Quite often this labels are similar to inspection labels, but this labels are related to the box of bananas and do not stick direct on the banana.
     
  • Documentation
    When variants exist, then it could be useful to add in the catalog entry a picture to show it in detail. It is rather a technical trick to add a banana label and change the headline to documentation. The much better solution is to add a picture in the description of the catalog entry. But anyway, we have got few documentations of whatever in the position usually a banana label is shown.

    When you like to add a prove picture showing the label on bananas in a supermarked, then add it at the associated banana label and put the picture in the second position. The pictures in the first position is shown in the catalog and all other positions only when you click in the details of the label. Please do not add a 'documentation'

  • Fake
    Unfortunally some people have produced stickers, that look like the old and rare banana labels we all like to have in our collections. It is a little bit like fake money. Fake labels have not value, because they are not used on bananas but they look like a real banana labels. In contradiction to REJECTED labels the FAKE labels are produced to deliberately deceive us collectors.
  • Fraud
    This kind of labels started with the typical home made Chinese labels of the brand Chiquita or Turbana. They are produced to primp up the local low quality products. Frauds are wonderful banana labels for us collectors.
    But, in the mean time there is - especially in Chiana -  a complete industry that produce stickers, the local groceries can put on their fruits.This stickers are not really similar to well known banana brands but made up fantasy companies. So the term FRAUD needs a rework. BTW, with 'home made' stickers, we do not mean the stickers form Mexico to promote the own fruit shop or the generic SELECTED labels from Peru. So the border between FRAUD to imitate quality products and PROMOTION or real BANANA LABEL is unclear.
     
  • Hang Tag
    Hang tags do not stick on bananas but tied to them. Qute often hang tags are used, when the information is to huge to put on the sticker itself. The definition of hang tags overlap a little bit with our tin badges.
     
  • Inspection Label
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  • Misprint
    Misprints are a variant of a normal label, where in the print process a wrong colour is used or a color is just empty. It is difficult to say, if misprints are used on bananas or not. Sometimes our collectors in EC und CR have contact to the copy shop and are allowed to take the waste. So it is a good idea to check who has give a verification.
     
  • Pack Label
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  • Promotion Label
    Promotion labels have a small number of copies. For example when our new wholesale market hall opened here in Frankfurt, every visitor has got a banana as a present with and a banana label to remembering that day. Or the Paris marathon also had an own banana label for the athlets. And the home made labels of our collectos who add them to the letters are also classified as promotion.
     
  • Rejected
    This labels are not banana labels and should be deleted from the catalog. But they are still in the catalog because a collector has added the label and thougth it could be one. Because we do not loose the comments and the verifications, the label is still there. From time to time when we think everybody is informed we delete this stuff from the catalog.
     
  • Replica
    From this label we do only have a fotocopy and not a picture so far. Especially in the old collection of Gerri and Erich we found few labels that are obvious a fotocopy or a c-print.
     
  • Set
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  • Tin Badge
    Tin badges are hang tags made out of tin.
     
  • Trial Label
    Trial or Test labels are used to test banana labels. For example our red ROSY label. This one had a new material / glue and it was tested at a banana farm, if it can be put quick on wet bananans. To distinguish it from the normal banana label it has got the colour red instead of blue. And we have got the MIGROS label with a farmnumber in the wrong county, that was only a test in the copyshop to check the quality, without testing it on bananas (proof prints).
     
  • Wrapper
    John Kirchner in an e-mail about NEXT716:  By the way, you should not call the label a wrapper. In the produce and banana business it is called a "Cigar Band" label or simply a "Band Label." For single bananas they are very rare. In the 1940's they were common on banana hands, and I have one from United Fruit Canada. In recent years banding of hands has been common, especially for organic bananas. I have found several over the years, but the only one off a single banana is a Chiquita I found in Japan decades ago. My last trip to SE Asia in 2019 I found a band brand called Joan in Cambodia, very much like the bands of the 1940s.
    Wrapper labels are common in Japan, but they are totally different from a band label. Usually it's a single label or a hand wrapped in clear plastic-- the label can be externally attached, or on the banana inside, or even printed on the plastic.

     

Plastic Bags are so far not element of this catalog. But we have a huge gallery with plastic bags we have found in Costa Rica. Max J. for example is collecting them. And we have got the the garbage. Garbage are the stickerst we found on bananas but we not need to document at the catalog. This kind of labels are rather something for a personal collection but really nothing we need to know about. First of all this are the price tags of a supermarket or the waste from print shops when producing banana labels. We do not have a category for this labels because they should not exist here.

This categories are only a proposal. If you have got category names that are more clear or you think we should put it in a different way, than just please add a comment.

Author: 

michael

Last modified: 

Apr 2023

Comments

So far just a draft.

So far just a draft. Everybody is invited to help and to complete the definition or add examples to our gallery.

How would you classify the

How would you classify the price label shown in the gallery OTHERS? So far it would be a banana label in a catalog entry of the supermarket. Do we need a other category of banana label types? What else should be element of this category (Ripe, #4011, 1€, Sweet, ...)?