“Sa Wad Dee Jao”, this is the greetings from Chiang Mai.
We neither take you to the field or farm today. On the other hand, we will be taking you to the supermarket at the centric city of Chiang Mai. Let us be clear that this is not any commercial or campaigning. But because of what we discovered is very WOW for people who love cooking like us. Therefore, the destination today is the infamous Rim Ping Supermarket.
Walking though the automatic door, we felt it is just a typical supermarket where they have middle to hi-end products on shelf. That was not until we saw the 'Organic Fruit' sign which attracted us so much. We thought that this would be those imported fruits and vegetable just like any other premium supermarkets, but we were wrong. We found was the 5 colors of stickers in front of us. These stickers work as a label used to clearly inform the origin of each product. We were quite surprised that we can have such thing in Thailand finally. Now, let's go see how each color works.
The Certified Organic (Green Label) is considered 100% organic, starting the seeds up until the harvesting. It is registered, already and received the certification.
The Organically Grown (Blue Label) considered the products that are planted with organic processes and with every step that is similar to the Green Label, except that it has not been yet certified or in the process of requesting a certification.
The Safe (Yellow Label) are for those agricultural products with chemical use during planting, but leaves safe period at least 10 days before harvesting.
The Hydroponics (White Label) is for products that their plant growings are fed by nutrients in liquid form.
General Vegetable (Red Label) Generic agricultural products that cannot explain the origin, method of acquisition of products.
The Red Label may sound questionable. However, the Rim Ping Supermarket itself has set up a requirement to sell vegetables that have to be tested by Rimping's lab called Rimping Screening Test to certify that these products
are safe and can be on shelf. This is to ensure that Rim Ping's customers can consume these products undoubtedly.
The details of the Rimping Screening Test are broken down in the sign that indicate the list of farmers who have passed the tests of chemical use
including the use of insecticides, borax, formalin, bleach and salicylic acid.
This examination, in addition to fruits and vegetables, is also examined for details of meat and seafood as well.
Although this examination may not be endorsed by leading institutions, but we see the good intention that Rim Pin as a market wants to help customers filter raw materials which helps create standards and attentions for all producers.
We also see cute ideas in trying to reduce waste and use natural materials as packaging. Even if it can still be done in very small quantities compared to over ten thousand items, but it is a good sign of starting already.
At some point, we are quite jealous how Chiang Mai can have safe materials for food even though it is still the small one. We also wish to see this kind of safe marketplace all over other regions. Let’s imagine that if this idea could be done across the country, then we would have another 76 safe marketplace for all the people to consume at the end of the day.
Author
Nattaporn Pinpech
Creative / Story teller