and vitamins are preserved along with the apple’s colour when the ‘browning gene’ is silenced. No foreign proteins appear in Arctic apples.


The OSF research team of five scientists at the Saskatchewan Bioscience Cluster in Saskatoon adapted the technology from work done in potatoes years ago by Australia’s national research organization. The team is also developing technology that makes apples resistant to scab, fire blight and scald and looking at ways to use similar precise breeding techniques to expand the market for other varieties of fruit.


Modern genetic engineering techniques used to modify the DNA of plants and animals are much more precise than mutation breeding (mutagenesis), in which an organism is exposed to radiation or chemicals to create a non-selective but stable change. Examples of successful mutagenesis are the use of X-rays and gamma radiation to develop cherry varieties with characteristics such as self-fertilization that are credited with saving the B.C. cherry industry. Carter and colleagues predict non-browning varieties will provide a consumption trigger for apples.


“It’s important to eliminate the ‘yuk factor’ associated with browning. Arctic apples could get more people eating more apples. Think about what ‘baby’ carrots did for carrot consumption,” Carter said.


Apple consumption in North America has been on a downward trend for the past 20 years.


Retired Canadian plant breeder Dr. David Lane recently wrote a letter to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in support of OSF’s application for unconfined release of Arctic apples.


“Our Canadian apple industry needs ‘new and improved’ products to compete with fruit offerings from the sub-tropic that are reducing apple consumption and apples from the increasingly efficient and vertically integrated Washington industry that are out-competing our small industry,” Lane said.


“Improved clones of Golden and Granny that don’t brown are an innovation many people will be anxious to try; they will, in addition, reduce shrinkage and increase grades in light colored cultivars that show minor bruises (normally invisible in red apples like Red Delicious) thus increasing the efficiency of our industry and our ability to compete with imports. “A special feature for me is that more attractive apples that stay fresh longer will encourage kids to eat more apples, hopefully, displacing their present choice of pop and other manufactured sweets. Arctic Apples are safe.” Advantages of non-browning apples include less cullage, higher packouts and less bruising on the packing line, which


Arctic Granny and


Arctic Golden


would result in higher returns to producers and packers. Arctic apples would dramatically reduce input costs, making apples more accessible to consumers, whether at retail or food service. Apple juice and apple sauce would retain their natural colour without the use of antioxidants that could result in new product uses.


To obtain indications of market acceptability of Arctic apples, OSF has commissioned surveys over the years. An early positive indication was obtained in 2006-07 when 76 percent of 40 industry executives from across the apple supply chain said they were interested in Arctic apples. At the consumer level, OSF has found that the more information consumers have about the technology used to create Arctic apples the more likely they are to accept them. “We’ve found that experience is the best path to acceptance,” Carter said. More than 80 percent of focus group participants in 2007 were positive about non-browning apples.


Market-fresh Arctic apples would be be voluntarily labelled as such and appear on the market gradually. Apple growers typically replant 3-5 percent of their overall acreage each year and it takes about 3-4 years for those trees to bear commercial fruit.


Responses to OSF’s submission of applications for regulatory approval in fall 2010 have been mixed. Favourable support has included some B.C. fruit growers and the fresh- cut industry in the U.S.


“If this apple doesn’t decompose, it can remain longer on the shelf. As consumers, we’re going to be deceived by perfect fruits in the stores,” Eric Darier, Greenpeace’s Quebec director and anti-GM campaign co-ordinator, was quoted as saying in the Penticton Herald in November 2010. The same article included the comment, “A botox apple is not what people are looking for,” by Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, a non-profit group based in Washington, D.C.


Juice from non-browning Arctic apples on left, and from conventional apples on right.


At its January 2011 convention, the B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association passed a resolution calling on the federal government to hold off on approving the open release of GM fruit until there is assurance it will have no impact on organic farm certification. The association also called for government indemnity for the impact of GMOs on growers’ market returns.


At the time, then BCFGA president Joe Sardinha was British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Fall 2012 9


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