Key facts
- Tropic has developed gene-edited bananas that resist browning for an extra day or two after peeling.
- The bananas maintain their taste and texture, staying fresh and yellow for longer.
- The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has approved a marketing notice for the bananas, confirming their precision-bred status.
- Precision-bred status is granted if genetic changes could be achieved through traditional breeding methods, without DNA from unrelated species.
- Tropic used Crispr-Cas9 technology to reduce the production of polyphenol oxidase, an enzyme that causes browning.
- The company estimates the non-browning bananas could reduce food waste and CO2-equivalent emissions by over 25% in the banana export market alone.
Gene-edited bananas that resist browning after peeling are one step closer to being sold in UK supermarkets, following a marketing notice approval from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The bananas, developed by Norwich-based agricultural-biotechnology company Tropic, maintain their taste and texture while staying yellow for longer, a trait achieved by reducing the production of the browning enzyme polyphenol oxidase using Crispr-Cas9 technology.
Gilad Gershon, Tropic's chief executive, stated that the bananas resist browning for an extra day or two, and even longer if chilled. This innovation could facilitate their use in prepackaged products like fruit salads and breakfast pots, while also contributing to waste reduction. Tropic estimates that these non-browning bananas could cut food waste and CO2-equivalent emissions by over 25% in the banana export market alone, potentially saving over 9 million tonnes of CO2 annually.
The UK's precision-bred status is granted to organisms whose genetic changes could have been achieved through traditional breeding, without incorporating DNA from unrelated species. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) will conduct a safety review, a process for which the timeline remains unclear, according to Prof Cathie Martin, a project leader at the John Innes Centre. Regulations for precision-bred plants in England came into effect in November last year, but no precision-bred organisms have yet been granted market authorisation for sale in the country. However, Tropic has already secured regulatory approval for its non-browning bananas in 10 other countries, including Japan, Brazil, and the Philippines, and the fruit is currently being grown in Latin America.