Sep 4, 2012
Non-browning apples seek U.S. access

To Herb Aldwinckle, the development of the non-browning, genetically engineered Arctic Apple is welcome.

“I really think the fact that many apple varieties turn brown when you slice them is a big drawback,” said Aldwinckle, professor of plant pathology at Cornell University. “It (Arctic) has the potential to substantially increase apple sales.”

Aldwinckle is among the researchers who have been growing and observing the Arctic Apples, in development by Summerland, British Columbia-based Okanagan Specialty Fruits. USDA is currently seeking public input on Okanagan’s petition to deregulate its Arctic Granny and Arctic Golden apples in the United States.

That prompted the U.S Apple Association (USApple) to release a statement in July that it doesn’t support the proposal, but not due to concerns over human health or safety.

“Consumers like their apples and are not calling for these new ‘non-browning’ cultivars,” reads the statement, which also notes, “There are currently no GE apples sold in our country’s marketplace.”

Mark Gedris, director of membership and communications for USApple, reiterated that position in a phone interview.

“Consumers haven’t asked for these traits,” he said. “As we mention in our statement, browning is a natural process. There are already natural ways to delay browning in apples.”

Gedris said the sliced apple market is already thriving, as evidenced by sliced apples in grocery stores, McDonald’s Happy Meals and the like. He also disagreed that a non-browning apple would increase apple sales.

Neal Carter, founder and president of Okanagan Specialty Fruits and a grower himself, said that one benefit of the Arctic in fresh-cut would be better taste.

“We really felt that by getting rid of enzymatic browning – primary browning, as it’s referred to; not the fungal-type browning but bacterial-driven browning associated with rot (that still happens, Arctic apples still go rotten) – if we could do that, we could make fresh-cut slices without an antioxidant and just use an antibacterial wash,” Carter said. “By getting rid of the antioxidant, you bring down the price point so it’s more competitive, and you basically make it so it doesn’t have the citrus zing.

“Now every time you have a fresh-cut apple slice, it’s flavored by antioxidant treatment itself.”

Gedris disagreed, saying the flavor of commercially produced sliced apples isn’t affected by treatments to curb browning.

“We don’t need to go down this road,” he said.

The developers and proponents of Arctic Apples see it differently.

Christine Dendy, owner of Dendy Orchards in Kelowna, British Columbia, and a member of the Okanagan board, said “there’s a major market” for Arctic Apples.

“Particularly in the restaurant, hotel and commercial trades, the ability to be able to serve an apple which looks nice – it’s huge to them,” she said. “There’s a major market there.”

And it’s a market that Okanagan definitely has in its sights.

“The real exciting thing is their application in fresh cut and in foodservice and in new products,” Carter said. “It creates opportunities for apples to go more places into new things, like chunks of apples into granola and using apple slices instead of breadsticks on a bread tray in restaurant meals; using apples as a side plate garnish instead of melons and orange slices – in ways they’re not used today.”

Carter said the company has been excited about what has come out of its field trials in Washington and New York states. If they receive approval from USDA, they’re hoping to get four or five test blocks going by next spring.

Whether USApple’s objection has an impact on the approval process remains to be seen. Desmond O’Rourke, president of the Pullman, Wash.-based Belrose Inc., world apple market analysts, said USDA is obliged to rule on the facts.

“They’ve gone through the same thing with alfalfa, with corn and many other products,” he said. “It’s going to be based on science.

“I’m not sure lobbying by anybody really should have any influence.”

By Kathy Gibbons, Editorial Director




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