Avant Gardener: Science and the non-browning apple

  • By Kyle Valentini
  • May 21, 2013
  • 392
                        
Summary: Apples taste great and when stored properly, last a long time. Scientists have created an apple that resists browning and I can’t for the life of me figure out why that was necessary. The biotech industry is once again infiltrating our food system with the introduction of the Arctic Apple, slated to be released in the U.S. later this year. What makes the Arctic Apple different from other apples is they do not turn brown when cut into pieces. The friendly folks at Okanagan Specialty Fruit, a small, dynamic Canadian biotechnology company started by a man with a vision even went so far as to register the name Arctic when used with the somewhat generic word apple. I don’t think the capital R in a circle will be required when discussing Arctic ice melts, oil spills or polar bears, however. Currently apples grown conventionally require enormous amounts of chemical pesticides to make them perfect and shiny so Americans will buy them. While organic apples do exist, only I and six other people in the world buy them, making the misshapen, oddly colored fruits extremely expensive and sometimes mistaken for the petrified organs of early humans. All sarcasm aside conventionally grown apples continually rate at the top of the Environmental Working Group’s list of foods containing pesticide residue that cannot be washed away. The list, known as the Dirty Dozen is unlike the 1967 Lee Marvin film of the same name as it is not based on a hopelessly old-fashioned script but rather on scientific evidence that clearly states when we eat conventionally grown apples we are also eating pesticides. The Arctic Apple will contain pesticides. Like all conventionally grown apples there will be no labeling that requires the grower or lab technician to disclose the amount or type of chemicals used in producing the fruit. The apple, when grown organically, is possibly the world’s most perfect food. It comes in its own package in a multitude of colors and shapes. It requires no refrigeration and will last quite a while on the counter, in the bottom of a purse or lovingly tucked into a lunch box. Low in fat, an average size apple has about 65 calories. Apples are sweet and full of dietary fiber that can help reduce the risk for type 2 diabetes. Apples clean the teeth by promoting saliva production which results in fewer bacteria in the mouth. The soluble fiber found in apples binds with fats in the intestine, which translates into lower cholesterol levels. Apples can help prevent gallstones, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, and hemorrhoids as well as a multitude of other heath conditions with a moderate to high yuck factor. Needless to say, apples are fantastic. This brings us back to the browning of apples. Apples only turn brown when their flesh is exposed to air or more specifically, oxygen. When oxygen is present in cells, polyphenol oxidase enzymes in the chloroplasts rapidly oxidize phenolic compounds naturally present in the apple tissues to o-quinones, colorless precursors to brown-colored secondary products. O-quinones then produce the well documented brown color by reacting to form compounds with amino acids or proteins, or they self-assemble to make polymers, according to a really smart lady named Lynne McLandsborough from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Like I said, apples turn brown when you cut them into pieces. Like the team of white lab-coating wearing people at Okanagan Specialty Fruit, I too have found a solution to this urgent and pressing issue that could on some levels affect national security. I eat the apple. I do so in a very non-scientific manner. I don’t bother cutting it in pieces. I take large, sloppy bites. I become acutely aware on the increase of saliva in my mouth and I swallow the fruit with gratitude that my maker also made this apple so delicious and so perfect.


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