Medicosnext
Norfolk Plant Sciences has applied for U.S. approval to sell a purple tomato that is genetically modified to make it rich in beneficial pigments. The small company plans to sell seeds to growers and supply fresh purple tomatoes to shops. In 2008, its creator Cathie Martin and her team at the John Innes Centre in the UK reported that mice lived nearly 30% longer when their diet was supplemented with purple tomato powder than those on a standard diet or on one supplemented with powder from normal tomatoes.
While tomato varieties with purple skins are already available, the genetically modified tomatoes have purple flesh, as well, and they have 10 times more of antioxidant pigments, known as anthocyanins. The purple tomato was the result of adding two genes from snapdragon (Antirrhinum) plant and one from thale cress (Arabidopsis); these genes boost the activity of the plants’ existing machinery for making anthocyanins. Additionally, they also double the shelf life of the tomatoes, thus making them more environmentally friendly due to less waste. The researchers are also crossing the new tomatoes with other varieties to create purple cherry tomatoes, purple beefsteak versions, and so on.
Getting approval for genetically modified crops has always been very expensive, but in 2019, regulatory changes were made in the US to make it easier for products deemed to be low-risk to get approved, one of the changes being that the US Department of Agriculture has to respond within 180 days. In 1994, the US FDA had approved a genetically modified tomato, the Flavr Savr, produced by California-based Calgene, stating that special labeling was not necessary because they have the essential characteristics of non-modified tomatoes, there was no evidence for health risks, and the nutritional content was unchanged. Flavr Savr was the first commercially grown genetically modified food to be granted license for human consumption, but it was available only for a few years before production ceased in 1997 due to unprofitability.
