A GMO Purple Tomato Is Coming to Grocery Aisles. Will the US Bite?

The plant scientist went to the greenhouse to look at her tomatoes. The green fruits were small. The miniature tomatoes used in research labs are usually red when ripe. They started to turn purple when Martin came back.

Martin and her colleagues at the John Innes Centre in the UK were trying to make a tomato with high levels of anthocyanidin. The team added two genes from the snapdragon flower to turn on the production of anthocyanins. Martin and her team have crossed their purple tomatoes with other types to make them bigger and better.

The purple tomato can be grown and cultivated in the US. The tomato is not subject to regulation because it is unlikely to pose an increased plant pest risk compared to other tomatoes. The main criteria the agency uses to determine whether a crop should be regulated are: A purple cherry tomato will be rolled out in a few test markets by Norfolk Plant Sciences. The firm is working on purple tomato juice, sun-dried tomatoes, and beefsteak tomatoes, as well as selling seeds for backyard gardeners. People will eventually grow their own.

The first genetically modified fruit in the US was approved by the FDA. The first genetically modified tomato was introduced in 1994 and it is not even the first one. The Flavr Savr has a longer shelf life. It was pulled from the market because of its high production and distribution costs. More profitable engineered crops, such as corn and soy, were designed with the grower in mind: to resist pests, tolerate herbicides, or produce higher yields.

The purple tomato may be a turning point for genetically modified foods in the US, as it is meant to entice the shopper, not the farmer. Brbara Blanco-Ulate, a fruit biologist and professor at the University of California, Davis, was not involved in the development of the purple tomato. People are looking for food that is better for them.

Tomatoes developed through conventional breeding do not have high levels of anthocyanins in the flesh. The compounds may help prevent cancer, reduce inflammation, and protect against type 2 diabetes. In a 2008 study, Martin and her team found that mice that were prone to developing cancer lived 30 percent longer on a diet that included purple tomatoes. There are many lifestyle and genetic factors that can affect a person's cancer risk.