18 Jul Introducing the non-browning apple
A small Canadian agri-biotech company is trying to bring to market a genetically engineered apple that does not turn brown when sliced or bruised. But it has much of the rest of the North American apple industry seeing red.
The company, Okanagan Specialty Fruits, says the Arctic Apple, as it is being called, is primarily designed for fast food restaurants and other food service companies that use pre-cut apples.
The technology was first developed in Australia and later licensed by Okanagan Specialty Fruits, which says the non-browning fruit can be beneficial to producers, retailers, and consumers due to its longevity.
While Americans have been eating genetically engineered foods since the 1990s, those have been mainly processed foods. could become one of the first genetically engineered versions of a fruit that people directly bite into.
But the US Apple Association, which represents the American apple industry, opposes introduction of the product, as do some other industry organisations. They say that, while they do not believe that the genetic engineering is dangerous, it could undermine the fruit’s image as a healthy and natural food.
“We don’t think it’s in the best interest of the apple industry of the United States to have that product in the marketplace at this time,” said Christian Schlect, president of the Northwest Horticultural Council, which represents the tree-fruit industry in and around Washington State, which produces about 60 percent of the nation’s apples.
The Agriculture Department has opened a 60-day public comment period on Okanagan’s application for regulatory approval of the genetically modified apple trees. A public comment period just ended in Canada, where the company is also seeking approval.
Neal Carter, the founder and president of the company, which is based in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, said the non-browning apples could improve industry sales, much as baby carrots did for carrot sales.
A whole apple is “for many people too big a commitment,” he said. “If you had a bowl of apples at a meeting, people wouldn’t take an apple out of the bowl. But if you had a plate of apple slices, everyone would take a slice.”
Consumption of fresh apples in the US has fallen from about 20 pounds a year for each person in the late 1980s to about 16 pounds now, according to the Agriculture Department.
Apple slices are already becoming more popular as a healthful snack, sold in bags in supermarkets and included by McDonald’s in its Happy Meals for children. The slices are often coated with vitamin C and calcium to prevent browning and preserve crispness. But that can affect the taste, Carter said.
He also said that growers would have fewer apples rejected by supermarkets because of the minor bruising that is common from handling of the fruit.
Arctic Apples, which would first be available in the Golden Delicious and Granny Smith varieties, contain a synthetic gene that sharply reduces production of polyphenol oxidase, an enzyme responsible for the browning.
The gene does not come from another species. Rather, it contains DNA sequences from four of the apple’s own genes that govern production of polyphenol oxidase. Putting an extra copy of a gene into a plant can activate a self-defense mechanism known as RNA interference that shuts down both the extra copy and the endogenous gene.
Arctic Apples aren’t slow browning, they aren’t low browning – they are truly non-browning. An Arctic Apple will decay naturally just like any other apple, but it will not turn brown from bruising, cutting or biting – not in minutes, hours or days.
Any apple variety can be engineered to be a non-browning Arctic Apple. OSF decided to first convert two of the most popular apple varieties of all time, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith. Next in the queue are Fuji and Gala.
Arctic Apples are OSF’s first offering – but they won’t be its last. It is also working on nonbrowning pears, plum pox-resistant peaches, and fire blight- and scab-resistant apples.
Some critics say the lack of browning could conceal problems with an apple that consumers may want to know about.
“Is it a rotten apple that looks fresh?” said Lucy Sharratt, coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, a coalition of groups critical of genetically engineered crops. Sharratt also said the genetic engineering was “designed to turn the apple into an industrialized product” that could be sold in plastic bags instead of as whole fresh fruit.
Carter said the injury from bruising or slicing was not harmful to consumers. If the apple were truly rotten from a bacterial or fungal infection, it would still change colour….
New York Times: Read the full article
Okanagan Specialty Fruits; www.okspecialtyfruits.com