Any way you slice it, GMO apples heading to Midwest

Non-browning variety will be sold pre-sliced and for a premium.

Genetically modified fruit salad just got real. Along with virus-resistant papayas, apples are joining the ranks of biotech fruit sold in U.S. grocery stores.

The first commercial harvest of GMO Golden Delicious apples will be going from Washington state orchards to about 400 Midwestern grocery stores this month. They will be sliced up in 10-ounce bags. Because they’re modified, they take much longer to brown when exposed to the air.

While GMO crops are the mainstream for U.S. commodities such as corn and soybeans, that isn’t the case with fruits. There’s little financial incentive to develop and commercialize modified fruits because of the costs of changing food rules and the risks of consumer pushback, said Kevin Folta, a horticulture professor at the University of Florida.

Papayas from Hawaii, engineered to resist a deadly virus, are the only other biotech fruit at supermarkets.

There’s no evidence that genetically modified foods cause any health problems, but the technology is still controversial, with some consumers willing to pay more for food with GMO-free labeling.

But British Columbia-based Okanagan Specialty Fruits is making a bet that the convenience of non-browning apples will make up for consumer concerns. The company harvested about 50 metric tons of the so-called Arctic apples. That’s enough to supply the supermarkets for around two months, President Neal Carter said.

The long-lasting, fresh-cut fruits will especially appeal to parents with busy lifestyles, and will fetch a premium in pricing, Carter said.

“Whatever people’s views about GMO technology and Arctic apples are, no one is disputing that increasing consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables is a healthy choice,” said Peter Hirst, a professor of horticulture at Purdue University. “If this technology leads to more people including more sliced apples in kids’ lunchboxes, that’s a good thing.”

Genetically modifying apples in particular could be a risky wager. Because apples are seen as a healthy product that parents provide for children, it’s a sensitive market, said Jim McFerson, professor of horticulture at Washington State University.

Some growers in the Pacific Northwest, the biggest region for U.S. production of the fruit, have felt that being the first industry to bring a GMO product into such a sensitive market could hurt the apple’s positive image, McFerson said.

Still, consumers are used to having an abundance of choices when it comes to apples, which could help the GMO Arctic apple, according to Purdue’s Hirst. Apples come in a multitude of varieties, many of which sell for a premium.

The GMO apple has been in the works for decades. Carter and his wife, Louisa, founded Okanagan in 1996, and field trials with the Arctic Apple started in 2003. The U.S. Department of Agriculture deregulated the product in 2015.

Apple consumption in the U.S. has been stagnant for 20 years amid worsening obesity, and Carter wants the Arctic apple to help revive demand by improving the fruit’s appearance. Currently, about 280 acres of Arctic apple trees are planted in Washington state, including Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Fuji varieties.

OKANAGAN SPECIALTY FRUITS A traditional Granny Smith apple is shown on the right, with its slices already beginning to turn brown. The genetically modified version, known as an Arctic apple, is at left with still-pristine slices.