A time-lapse video shows the differences in browning of a regular golden delicious apple and a genetically modified Arctic golden apple left out for 24 hours. Photo: Arctic Apples
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The United States Department of Agriculture stated on its website Feb. 13 that genetically modified apples that don’t brown when they are bruised or cut have been approved for growing in the US. The new apples aim to expand growth in markets that sell pre-sliced fruit. The apples were also developed in hopes of lowering instances of food waste.
Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images
The apples join a slew of other GMO produce products that have been developed to appeal to consumer markets. In this instance, for example, ready-to-eat apples that don’t brown and don’t have the flavor of some kind of preservative on them would apparently be popular.
Bloomberg Business reports Feb. 13 that this approach differs from approaches in the past. While the past saw produce such as corn and soybeans being genetically modified to address farmer concerns such as crops surviving weed killers, companies like Canada’s Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc., who have designed the new apples to be grown in the not so far future, and J.R. Simplot Co., who designed a potato that was resistant to black spot bruising (which would also decrease food waste), have been focusing their genetic modifications in produce towards increased consumer appeal.
Though the apples have been approved, they won’t hit the marketplace until 2016, and then, only in test-markets. After that, a “slow but steady market introduction,” will ensue, stated Neal Carter, founder of Okanagan. It will take years for the Arctic Granny and Arctic Golden to be distributed widely but that is the eventual intent.
According to EcoWatch, the design of these apples received heavy opposition. “The USDA’s environmental review received 73,000 comments that overwhelmingly opposed the commercialization of Arctic Apples,” they write. Still, with the USDA approval, Arctic Granny and Golden apples will “expand the reach of GMO products into the produce aisle, which currently only offers a small number of GMO foods.”
It seems that the domestic apple industry is also opposed to the commercialization of Arctic apples. Many food companies have stated that they will not sell the GMO apples. “The U.S. Apple Association, Washington Apple Commission and other grower groups have voiced their disapproval due to the negative impact GMO apples could have on the apple industry, and in 2013 Gerber and McDonald’s announced that they would not use GMO apples in their products,” reports EcoWatch.
The design of the new apples have been based around an issue of essentially cosmetics and some say that the apples pose threats because of their virtually untested and experimental technique which uses RNA interference. The RNA interference technique could bring about unintended consequences on human health and the environment, according to some scientists.
Some concerns lie in the fact that the pre-sliced Arctic apples will, most likely, not be labeled. Differentiating them from non-GMO produce will be therefore be difficult or impossible.
Okanagan is “engaging in a voluntary food safety assessment consultation with the Food and Drug Administration.” However, according to the USDA, the apples will most likely not “pose a plant pest risk or have a significant impact on the human environment.”
*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com
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