It is the bane of every fruit bowl: sliced banana that turns brown before it has reached the table. But such woes could soon be a thing of the past, with gene-edited bananas that keep their freshly peeled colour now one step closer to reaching British shoppers.
According to Tropic, the Norwich-based agricultural-biotechnology company that developed the fruit, the bananas have the same taste and texture but stay “fresh, yellow and appetising long after peeling and slicing”.
Gilad Gershon, the chief executive of Tropic, said the flesh of the new banana resisted browning for an extra day or two – and longer if chilled. He added that the innovation could make it easier to add bananas to prepackaged products such as fruit salads and breakfast pots, as well as reducing waste.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last week approved a marketing notice for the bananas, confirming their precision-bred status – one of two important requirements for them to be placed on the market.
According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA), precision-bred status is given only if the genetic changes made could have been achieved through traditional breeding methods.
This is different from genetic modification because precision-bred organisms do not contain DNA from unrelated species.
Prof Cathie Martin, a project leader at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, who has worked on gene-edited tomatoes, said the next stage for all crops that had received marketing approval – including the new bananas – was a review by the FSA to ensure the safety of the products. “It is not entirely clear how long this will take,” she said.
Tropic developed the bananas by using a gene-editing technology called Crispr-Cas9 to alter all three copies of a single gene within the fruit. As a result, they were able to reduce the production of polyphenol oxidase, an enzyme that causes browning. A similar approach has been effective in reducing browning in other produce, including mushrooms.
Tropic said the non-browning bananas could reduce food waste and CO2-equivalent emissions along the supply chain by more than 25%. “This could support an annual reduction in CO2 emissions of over 9m tonnes in the banana export market alone,” the company said.
A government study found that 1.4m edible bananas were thrown away each day. A third of consumers (30%) said they had discarded a banana owing to a minor bruise or black mark on the skin.
Gene editing has been used by researchers to develop sweeter-tasting strawberries, disease-resistant crops and tomatoes that are more compact or high in vitamin D.
Regulations for precision-bred plants came into effect in November last year and apply only to England. However, the FSA notes precision-bred foods that are authorised and placed on the market in England can be sold in Wales and Scotland, provided they are not processed further, with similar rules for Northern Ireland. No precision-bred organisms have been granted market authorisation for sale in England.
Gershon said Tropic had gained regulatory approval for the non-browning bananas in 10 other countries including Japan, Brazil and the Philippines. The fruit is already being grown in Latin America.
A Defra spokesperson said: “Precision breeding offers huge potential to boost food security, cut pesticide use, increase crop yields and enhance disease resistance.
“[The non-browning banana] is a great example of how innovation could help to reduce food waste and improve the sustainability of our food system while keeping our world-leading standards in place.”
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