Biotech group Tropic says it is ready to roll out gene-edited bananas that don’t go brown, as well as others with extended shelf-life
UK-based plant biotech company Tropic is to launch non-browning bananas in March, and bananas with extended shelf-life by the end of the year, according to AgFunderNews, innovations that are expected to support growth in the market for cut fruit, reduce food waste, and reduce shipping costs.
In addition, the company is advancing field trials for Cavendish bananas said to be resistant to the devastating fungal disease Panama tropical race 4 (TR4).
Founded in 2016 by Gilad Gershon and Eyal Maori, Tropic used Crispr gene editing to develop the non-browning and longer shelf-life products.
Non-browning bananas offer the same taste and texture but resist oxidation, making them ideal for fruit salads and prepared fruit selections. This is achieved by disabling the genes responsible for polyphenol oxidase, the enzyme that triggers browning.
”People have been trying to improve the Cavendish for years with very little success,” said Gershon. “The bananas have the same taste, smell, sweetness profile, the same everything, except that the flesh doesn’t go brown as quickly, which means you can add them to fruit salads and cut fruit products, opening up a huge new market.”
Extended shelf-life bananas, launching later this year, are aimed at improving shipping logistics. “Bananas are picked when they are green, very like tomatoes. The intention is to keep them in this kind of pre-ripened state while they are being shipped from the country of the production to the country of consumption.”
With conventional Cavendish. bananas, he continued, there is a limit to how far the bananas can travel. “So you can harvest in Ecuador, but it is challenging to ship those bananas to Japan or to the Middle East. “What we’re doing is knocking out the genes that are responsible for the production of ethylene.”
If bananas can stay greener for longer, you can harvest them later, ship them for longer, and reduce packaging and chilled transportation costs, claimed Gershon.
Tropic isn’t preventing ripening altogether, however, but “buying companies at least ten extra days, which is huge for the banana industry.”
