The apple that never goes brown: Biotech firm in bid to sell genetically modified fruit for lunchboxes

A Canadian biotechnology company has asked the U.S. authorities to approve a genetically modified apple that will not brown soon after it is sliced.The apple variety, which is being marketed as ‘Arctic’, has had the genes responsible for producing the enzyme that induces browning switched off. Okanagan Specialty Fruits say the new type could boost sales of apples for snacks and salads and lower costs.

Neal Carter, president of the company said: ‘They look like apple trees and grow like apple trees and produce apples that look like all other apples and when you cut them, they don't turn brown. 'The benefit is something that can be identified just about by everybody.' The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has considered about 100 petitions for genetically engineered or modified crops. Those that have drawn the most attention have been engineered to withstand certain weed killers, but among those the agency has approved are tomatoes altered to ripen more slowly — the first genetically modified crop approved in the U.S. in 1992 — and plums that resist a specific virus. This is the first petition for apples. The approval process can take years, and it's not clear the apples will be accepted even if they pass government inspection.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1334996/Biotech-firm-bid-sell-genetically-modified-fruit-lunchboxes.html#ixzz17LwZ4WSl
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1334996/Biotech-firm-bid-sell-genetically-modified-fruit-lunchboxes.html#ixzz17Lw4iqRG
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1334996/Biotech-firm-bid-sell-genetically-modified-fruit-lunchboxes.html#ixzz17LvlRIFa