Gregory's ServerI just got out my copy of Dreyfuss's 1972 "Symbol Sourcebook" which I thought I had checked months ago and it turns out it's in there! "Symbol Sourcebook" is a big book of symbols and for each section Dreyfuss has a bibliography and for the Material Handling section, there are several potential sources but the most likely looking to me is either the ANSI "Pictorial Markings for Handling of Goods" or its ISO counterpart
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 i haven't found any other references online to the 1968 version of ANSI MH6.1 but carnegie mellon apparently has a copy of the 1972 in their library and hey what if i went to pittsburgh? that's like only an eight hour drive from here it is not included in ISO 7000, "Graphic symbols for use on equipment" (unlike a lot of common material handling symbols) but there are some bangers in there like 2416, "Protection against chain saw" ISO 780:1997 does NOT include the perishable symbol. i have been taken for a FOOL. looking like the perishable symbol may be an ANSI MH6.1 thing only? UPDATE: I tracked down a copy of ANSI MH6.1-1968, "Pictorial Markings for Handling of Goods" at the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City and (once we got copyright permission from ANSI) they scanned it for me. It's a cool old document but it did not contain the PERISHABLE symbol. With ANSI MH6.1 out of the running, there is one remaining likely candidate in the bibliography from Henry Dreyfuss's 1972 "Symbols Sourcebook" and that is a system of signs Herbert Lindinger made or compiled for Olivetti I emailed the Olivetti Archives a couple weeks ago and have not heard back. I have been looking for information on Herbert Lindinger and it looks like he may still be alive! Or if he died, nobody has updated his wikipedia page. I have not found a contact for him yet but have emailed a German university he was associated with to see if they have any way to contact him. What if this is the designer of the label and he is still alive??  I was a kid in the 70s and it seemed to be a boom time for graphic design (especially that used on public infrastructure).. Also worth a look at is the work of Margaret Calvert from Britain, who designed many fonts used on British transport related infrastructure and the current set of road signs which are still seen by everyone in the UK today |
so the symbol is at least from 1968 if not earlier! Dreyfuss does attribute some things in the book to himself but he doesn't in the Material Handling section so it's not clear if he was involved in the production of the ANSI symbols or not. in 1971 he did some different work for ANSI which means that me googling "henry dreyfuss ansi" isn't gonna get me super far on this question probably!