If Only Patients Were Apples

On telly the other evening was an article about how farmers are able to deliver "fresh" apples to us all year round. The answer is that they store apples in reduced-oxygen cooled storage units. Similar things are done with the humble potato. The way in which Tesco et al monitor the growing, storage and packing of everyday food items is astonishing. Consider the following the next time you are holding a bag of spuds in the supermarket.

Mr Sainsbury or Mr Morrison can tell you everything there is to know the batch of potatoes in that bag:

• What day it was originally planted and the weather conditions (wind, temp, etc)
• What chemicals have been applied to it (batch number, date, weather conditions, etc)
• What day it was picked (weather, blah, blah ..)
  
• Where it was stored and all the records of temperature, location, etc.
• When it was removed from store and packed
• Which lorry delivered to where and then the same for final delivery.

It is an amazing system and it hasn't cost twenty billion quid!