A leading fruit grower said it is confident it will be able to offer residue-free English apples by next season.
Worldwide Fruit said there is also a possibility similar fruit will also be available from New Zealand through its grower partner Enza.
The announcement is the result of a four-year development programme and follows successful field trials, by Qualytech, the technical arm of WWF. Drew Reynolds, technical director, said: “The work is now starting to show really positive results. Next season we should be able to have a protocol in place and offer our customers a residue free product.” However, he warned cost may be higher.
“Availability will be on a wider scale than the original grower base, where we conducted the study. New Zealand is also arguably closer to this goal than the UK,” he added.
Qualytech started in the UK with post-harvest storage trials that investigated the effectiveness of post-harvest chemicals. “We have virtually removed the once standard post-harvest drench and at the same time alleviated the major potential for residues in UK top fruit.”
This year the work has been focused on two areas. Orchard trials, using protocols that aim to produce clean residue free fruit, and an academic project, studying what consumers perceive as “residue free”.
Reynolds said it is vital, for the success of the work, to understand what consumers want, and what they are buying. “When we launch residue free apples consumers must have a better understanding of what it means.”
He added WWF's category customers, Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose, while supporting the promotion of LEAF, Field to Fork and Nature’s Choice respectively also had grower and product development very high on their agenda for the future.
