On a current Throughout a visit to Large Eagle, my native grocery retailer in Pittsburgh, I seen one thing new within the fruit part: a single pineapple packaged in a pink and inexperienced field. The entrance picture confirmed a pineapple reduce open to disclose pink flesh. The fruit marketed because the “jewel of the jungle” was the Pinkglow pineapple, the creation of US meals big Contemporary Del Monte. It value $9.99, which is a bit more than double the worth of an everyday yellow pineapple.
I put the field in my cart, took a photograph with my telephone, and shared the discover with my foodie mates. Did I point out that its coloration is a consequence genetic modification— the field stated “Made Doable by Bioengineering,” however that didn’t appear to hassle anybody. Once I introduced my Pinkglow to a Tremendous Bowl social gathering, individuals oohed and ahhed over the colour after which wolfed it up. It was juicier and fewer tart than an everyday pineapple, and there was one other distinction: it had the distinctive crown chopped off. Quickly my mates began shopping for pink pineapples too. One in every of them used Pinkglow to make home made tepache, a fermented drink created from pineapple peels that was invented in pre-Columbian Mexico.
Whereas orange cauliflower and white strawberries at the moment are commonplace in American grocery shops, non-yellow pineapple does not appear so misplaced. Nonetheless, I puzzled: why now with such a flashy presentation? And why pink? And why did my mates and I instantly snatch it up?
Once I introduced My inquiries to Hans Sauter, Contemporary Del Monte’s Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President of Analysis, Improvement and Agricultural Providers, he started with a quick historical past of the fruit. You may assume, as I did, that pineapples have at all times been candy and sunny, however that wasn’t the case till the Nineteen Nineties. Retailer-bought pineapples of yesteryear had a inexperienced shell with mild yellow flesh that was usually extra tart than candy. Shopping for a brand new one was dangerous. “Nobody may actually inform whether or not the fruit was ripe or not, and pineapples have been consumed principally in cans as a result of individuals may belief what they might eat there,” says Sauter. Added sugar to some canned pineapples makes them a sweeter, smoother product.
In 1996, the corporate launched Del Monte Gold Further Candy, which was yellower and fewer bitter than something in the marketplace on the time. Pineapple gross sales have skyrocketed, and client expectations for the fruit have modified eternally. The recognition of the Gold selection led to a world feud over pineapples when fruit rival Dole launched its personal selection. Del Monte sued, claiming that Dole primarily stole the Gold formulation. The 2 firms in the end settled out of court docket.
Following the success of the Gold pineapple, Del Monte started searching for new properties that would make the pineapple much more enticing to shoppers, Souther stated. However pineapple propagation is a gradual course of; a single plant might take two years or extra to supply mature fruit. Del Monte spent 30 years crossing pineapples with sure desired traits earlier than they have been able to launch Gold. Sauter says ready one other 30 years for a brand new selection is “out of the query.” So in 2005, the corporate turned to genetic engineering.
Del Monte did not got down to produce pink pineapple per se, however on the time, Sauter stated, shoppers have been displaying curiosity within the antioxidant-rich fruit. (Acai bowls and pomegranate juice, anybody?) Pineapples naturally convert the reddish-pink antioxidant-rich pigment lycopene into the yellow pigment beta-carotene. (Lycopene is what provides tomatoes and watermelon their coloration.) So, stopping this course of may end up in pink flesh and elevated antioxidant content material. The corporate tasked its devoted workforce of pineapple researchers with determining how to do that.
The workforce found three modifications to the pineapple genome. They inserted DNA from a mandarin orange to make it categorical extra lycopene. They added “silencing” RNA molecules to silence the pineapple’s personal lycopene-converting enzymes, which additionally helped cut back its acidity. (RNA silencing is identical approach used to GMO Arctic apples.) Lastly, Del Monte added a tobacco gene that confers resistance to sure herbicides, though firm officers say this was accomplished just so its scientists may affirm that different genetic modifications have been in impact, not as a result of that Del Monte plans to make use of these herbicides in manufacturing.