Mushy Peas or Tapioca Pudding? Part 3

Contd/
On entering we are greeted by what in essence is an enormous open space full of shelves containing every delight available. Somewhere at the back of my mind I can hear the engines of a jumbo jet starting up. Maybe there’s one parked in aisle 39 just waiting for a gap in the checkout queues before it can roll out to take off and disappear into the blue skies heading for Hamburg or Paris or Melbourne.

At a push I am sure that these supermarkets are missing out on a potential market here. Deliveries of our global intake would be made so much easier and just imagine the benefits of being able to fly from your local supermarket to your holiday destination. Last minute shopping would be great and on your return you could pickup a pizza for tea. Is it possible that most of the technology is already in place? One can normally find in excess of 20 or 30 fully computerised checkouts (or are they checkins?) in these gargantuan hangars. Although the internal workings may be suitable and the ‘out of town’ location may be right the lack of runways could cause a slight problem. Perhaps they are just waiting for the advent of VTOL passenger jets to fulfil their potential?

The aroma of freshly baked bread wafts to our nostrils, perhaps a melange of fragrances from the fresh herbs. Other senses are bombarded, with multi coloured displays of special offers, seemingly never ending rows of produce from all over the world, in tins and cartons, boxes and packets our senses are assailed by enticing packaging with logos, phrases and words designed to motivate us to reach out and pluck at least one if not two of the not to be missed products, (BOGOFS perhaps the simplest promotion ever invented).

Let’s turn our attention to one section of goodies, the tinned produce. Tins or cans are a marvellous invention. They enable us to take wonderful fresh produce and process it in a factory and then preserve a portion inside the tin with a use by date of months if not years after it has been cultivated. These tins can then be packaged up into cases, (of 24 normally) and shipped (or planed) to all parts of the world. It can be fun to read the labels and find out the origin of the goods. East Indies, USA, China, Australia even sometimes The UK. We have the whole world represented on the shelves of stores from Southend to Solihull.

Now if you stop and think for just a moment about the labels on the tins it may dawn upon you that they are quite an important element of the tinned produce. The labels serve several purposes.
1. They are designed to enhance the appeal.
2. They provide information about ingredients.
3. They give details of daily consumption values.
4. And perhaps most importantly they identify what the contents are.
As far as I can see there are two types of label. One is intrinsic to the tin, where the tins are actually printed and second is a printed label which is secured to the tin, normally by glue.

Whichever method is used it ensures that the product inside, whether it be baked beans or pacific salmon, is not liable to have an identity crisis. Just imagine if these tins were not labelled. The world would be in pandemonium. We could have gungo peas screaming in anguish next to pilchards which would think they were crabs. Juicy prunes would not know how good they were for regularity and custard would be at a loss to understand their purpose in life.
contd/