Fruity crime prevention initiative

Each apple is covered with a double-layer paper bag

Police in Suffolk are hoping that an apple a day not only keeps the doctor away but can also be used in the fight against crime.

The force is handing out hundreds of apples specially branded with a crime prevention slogan.

The message on the apples is to encourage local people to use timer switches on their lights to deter burglars.

Crime reduction officer, PC Steve Barrett, thought up the idea after reading about the fruit branding technique in a horticultural magazine.

Any company logo or image can be used

The apples have been produced by SunSign, a company which brands apples using a technique developed in Japan.

Each piece of fruit is individually grown in a small bag before being exposed to the sun.

Each apple is covered with a double layer paper bag.

The bag is left in place for the summer and the apple develops normally except that the skin remains a pale creamy yellow colour.

Canadian interest

About three to four weeks before harvest, the outer bag is removed leaving a translucent inner bag over the fruit - iIf both bags were removed at once the sudden exposure to bright sunshine could scorch the skin.

After a further two weeks the second bag is removed and at this stage a sticker, using food grade adhesive, is applied to the fruit.

The apple bags are imported from Japan

Where the image on the sticker is black the skin underneath remains a creamy yellow colour while the rest of the fruit turns red.

The fruit is then harvested at the normal time and the stickers are removed leaving an image of the logo on the fruit.

PC Barrett said: "It was something I read about in a magazine. No-one had used fruit for a police crime prevention scheme before.

"I started planning it a year ago and now the apples are fully grown."

PC Barrett said he had even managed to interest the Canadian Mounted Police in the initiative on a recent trip to Canada.

SunSign has sponsored 1,000 apples, each branded with a lightbulb and the message "Lights on Timers".

It is hoped the novel idea will keep the force's autumn campaign switched on in everyone's minds.