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A whole crew of new and old children’s characters are getting into the green and healthy business, with companies licensing their images to sell everything from baby carrots, clementines and grapes to organic cereal and pastas designed specifically for children.

Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob Square Pants currently adorns bags of spinach, organic frozen edamame and more recently white and yellow plums.

His fellow Nickelodeon cartoon character, Dora the Explorer hawking pears, apples and baby carrots. And the letter of the day is “O” for organic for Sesame Street’s Elmo, Cookie Monster and Big Bird, whose toothless smiles grace boxes of organic alphabet pasta, cereal, crackers and cookies.

Though it’s a fraction of the $45 billion entertainment licensing industry, the use of characters from well-known children’s programs to sell organic, natural or healthy food products is a growing niche populated by major companies including Disney and smaller corporations such as the Melville-based Hain Celestial Group, which has been in the natural and organic industry for over a decade.

Many of the companies that own these characters will be at the Licensing International Expo 2007, scheduled to run Tuesday through Thursday at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.

FreshPlaza