At the moment law in Canada and the United States does not require that genetically modified foodstuffs on the shelves of grocery stores be labeled as such. So if it gets approved you could buy an apple that won't brown no matter how long your child leaves it at the bottom of a backpack without knowing it.
The makers of this genetically altered apple are taking steps to have it approved for market. Okanagan Specialty Fruits, from the province of British Columbia in Canada, make the modified apples and claim they adds convenience while remaining wholesome and safe to eat. Some don't agree and are telling the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada that the apple's not safe.
"The apples look exactly like what you’d expect, a Golden or Granny or Fuji, and it tastes like a normal apple," Neal Carter, a fruit grower, bio-resource engineer and president of the company says. "Their composition is, if anything, better or more nutritious, because as you’d expect, browning is a bad thing in an apple."
Groups Say Modifying Nature Not Safe
If you have an affection for nature and the natural way of doing things then naturally you won't consider that browning is such a bad thing. "A botox apple is not what people are looking for," Andrew Kimbrell says; Kimbrell is executive director of the Center for Food Safety in the United States and he's part of the movement that wants a natural apple, one that embraces browning.
"Scientists have been saying they’re only turning one thing off, but that switch is connected to another switch and another switch. You just can’t do one thing to nature. It’s nice to think so, but it just doesn’t work that way," Kimbrell insists.
Botox Analogy: Genetic Apple May Have Unknown Flaw
The botox analogy may be a good one, certainly a timely one, as recent studies have suggested that botox damages muscles elsewhere in the body. Botox has been around many years and yet this is the first time a study has definitively suggested this.
The concern, objectors like Kimbrell, and others like Greepeace, which has spoken out against the apple that does not brown, is that the alteration of the apple creates a side-effect that has not yet been discovered. Meanwhile Carter and Specialty Fruits says it is still a year or more away before they hear on any potential approval of their non-browning apple.
Of course if they are approved you won't know if you've bought one...unless it gets left in your child's backpack a few days and still comes out looking perfect.
Join the Conversation