Okanagan Specialty Fruits, a Canadian biotech company, has brought us the future… and it tastes like very fresh apples.
Neal Carter, Okanagan’s founder and grower, claims two have to varieties of apple — an “arctic granny” and “arctic golds” — that can be cut clean in half and yet have their flesh stay white and fresh for weeks on end. No brown spots. No bruising. Also, Carter claims, they require no chemical treatment before being processed for food and their juice runs clearer (for what that’s worth?).
They’re not magic apples, but they are genetically modified (GM) and have the gene responsible for browning ‘silenced’ (meaning their skins remain green or red indefinitely, as does their white flesh). This does also mean that an organic label is clear out of the question for Carter’s fruit. So, caveat emptor the Okanagan arctic apple.
Carter hopes to be granted approval to begin selling his apples in Canada and the US within the year; with planting and harvesting factored in, we could be buying these apples as soon as 2014.
Probably the best part about this biotech is that it would mean fewer damaged apples to toss out during the harvest. Which means more salable fruit and thus more profit. “At the end of the day,” says Carter, “It’s just a very nice apple that doesn’t go brown.” [DailyMail – Image via Glovatskiy/Shutterstock]