New Purple Tomato Reaching Grocery Shelves This Year

Scientists have genetically engineered tomatoes to contain very high levels of the cancer-fighting antioxidant which as a result have turned the fruit purple. John Innes Centre UK/Getty Images

A new tomato, genetically engineered to produce very high levels of the cancer-fighting antioxidant “anthocyanins”, which as a result have turned the usually red fruit into a deep purple, is set to be released in markets this year.

Anthocyanins—also found in berries—are thought to offer protection against cardiovascular disease and age-related degenerative diseases as well.

In hopes of finding ways to increase the levels of health-promoting compounds in commonly eaten fruits and vegetables, a team from the John Innes Centre, Norwich, has created purple tomatoes by integrating genes from the snapdragon flower, which is high in anthocyanins.

Tomatoes are the most consumed fruit in the world.

“While there are many options with types of tomatoes, there is huge consumer dissatisfaction with what you can actually find when shopping,” Nathan Pumplin, president and CEO of Norfolk said.

“Everyone loves fresh heirloom tomatoes from their garden for a Caprese salad or BLT, and that’s what people want but can’t find at the grocery store. And so we see a big opportunity to reach unmet needs of consumers through better tomato products as a starting point.”

GMO Tomato Approved By US Department of Agriculture

The idea originated in the United Kingdom with Prof. Cathie Martin, who developed and commercialised the technology in 2008 and later started Norfolk Plant Sciences in 2022 to take it closer to a market launch.

In a major breakthrough for the company, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave it approval in Sep. 2022 to grow and handle the purple tomato like a normal tomato.

However, it will not be available in other regions which have banned GMO products.

Pumplin, who is also Norfolk’s chief technology officer, said he wanted to change perceptions and conversations to focus more on the health potential and benefits of GMOs.

“We’ve received a lot of interest not only from liberal coastal early adopters but also from more of our agricultural centres not on the coast,” he said.

“There are surveys mostly done by the Pew Research Center that have been done asking the public, do you think that GMO foods are more or less healthy than conventional foods? It’s about a 50-50 split, and really, especially the younger generations say that they don’t care about whether it’s biotechnology or not.”

Non-GMO Tomatoes Can Naturally Produce Purple Fruit

However, the GMO purple tomatoes are up for some natural competition with an Oregon producer also working on a high antioxidant version of the fruit and “none were produced using genetically modified genes,” according to agricultural Prof. Jim Myers from Oregon State University.

He said that his purple variety was bred traditionally, whereas the GMO purple tomato to be released in the U.S. market this year will not be sold in Europe, where GMO products are illegal.

Myers is also responsible for breeding a green bean variety used on 80 percent of the farmland in Oregon.

The first purple tomatoes produced by agriculture Prof. Jim Myers. Oregon State University

Myers has been breeding purple tomatoes for the past 11 years and recently added four other purple varieties with better flavour and yield to the mix of 50 already available in the market.

A student of Myers’s was researching how tomatoes affect human health by studying a wild species from California when he noticed a purple-ish colour that had never been characterised before. Then they began to breed a tomato that combined the health benefits of anthocyanins with the home-grown tomato.

“We made selections in the field and choose tomatoes with the most intense expression, were more resistant to decay and verticillium wilt and will last longer in the field than normal tomato fruit,” Myers said.

While Norfolk looks ahead to the purple tomato reaching supermarket shelves in 2023, the founders said they owe their progress to the White House’s recent Executive Order on the bioeconomy and an increasing emphasis on problems in areas such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

US Law Changed Allows GMOs to be labeled Bioengineered

Products in the United States containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) will now be labeled as “bioengineered” under new food disclosure rules that took effect on Jan. 1, a change from being described as having “genetically engineered” or GMO components under the old rules.

Companies were given until Jan. 1 to comply with the new rules, which were finalized during the Trump administration. The government was following a law approved by Congress in 2016 to create a national standard for disclosing foods that are or may be bioengineered.

The countrywide standard “avoids a patchwork state-by-state system that could be confusing to consumers,” then-Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said at the time.

The updated labelling requirements have drawn criticism, as well as a legal challenge from the Center for Food Safety, which claims that they’re confusing.

“These regulations are not about informing the public but rather designed to allow corporations to hide their use of genetically engineered ingredients from their customers,” Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the centre, said in a statement. “It is a regulatory scam, which we are seeking to rescind in federal court.”

The Organic Trade Association, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and The Non-GMO Project are among the other opponents of the rule.

“Overall, many products containing GMOs will not be labeled, meaning that the absence of a bioengineered (BE) disclosure does not mean a product is non-GMO,” the project said in a statement when the rules were unveiled.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this article.