"chiquita banana" news and stories

The votes are in -- and Chiquita Banana unveiled the 18 winners in its sticker design contest.

The beloved banana company asked customers to help them redesign the iconic Chiquita banana sticker in a contest in June, Slashfood reported.

Fans submitted more than 100,000 votes for the 50 design finalists and the top 18 will adorn Chiquita bananas in stores across the country.

"I eat bananas every day before I sit down to work at my computer. Basically, bananas plus a graphic design contest equals magic," said Max I., a winner from Chico, Ca., on the Chiquita site. His design, a stylized cat with a star, got more than 3,000 votes.

What do you get when you process more than 320 million pounds of fruit a year? Lots of scraps.

Chiquita may be best known for its bananas, but at its plant in Guapiles, Costa Rica, it slices and dices all manner of tropical fruit-pineapples, papayas, passion fruit and mangos -- so that they can be turned into everything from baby food to yogurt.

But what to do with the leftovers? Instead of just letting them go to waste, the company has installed a huge new biodigester.

In Chiquita's press release, Manuel Rodriguez, the company's corporate responsibility officer, gushes: "This technology enables us to harness the full energy potential of fruit materials that previously could not be captured. It provides a sustainable energy source for our facility, nutrient rich fertilizer for local farmers and filters processing water."

Dream of seeing your artwork on every Chiquita Banana in the grocery store?

The thought probably never crossed your mind until right now. Well, timing is everything: Chiquita Banana is holding a Sticker Design Contest to revamp its look, Unbeige reported.

The contest runs through July 18 and would-be sticker designers can upload their art to the Web. Contest rules stipulate that entries should not have any "Inclusion or reference to Miss Chiquita" nor can they have any writing or text.

Also be sure to avoid material Chiquita could deem "inappropriate, indecent, obscene, hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous or libelous."

Strangely enough, I always thought that bananas were the ultimate single-serve food. They're conveniently packaged in their own skin and fit easily in your hand. The waste is minimal, not to mention biodegradable, and the fruit is filling and tasty. Chiquita is rolling out a new line of single-serving bananas for convenience stores, presumably to compete with packaged snack foods. Not only will the bananas be retailing at much higher prices than they do at the grocery store, but they will be packaged. A single serving, packaged banana is a concept that is so unnecessary it is difficult to find words to describe it further. Fortunately, only one word is needed: ridiculous.

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