It is recommended to eat five to nine servings of fruits and veggies per day, but this is no easy feat. Washing and slicing fruits can be especially laborious, so it’s not surprising that people prefer conveniently-packaged junk food.
One way people overcome this hurdle is to buy pre-cut fruit, which makes it less time-intensive and bite-sized to prepare and eat. However, many grocery stores will not invest in cutting fruit because, once cut, they tend to go rotten faster.
Apples are notorious for turning brown after they are bruised or cut, and once they are like that, nobody wants to buy them. A new apple called “Arctic Apples” have overcome this browning problem.
Why do apples brown in the first place? In a perfectly intact, regular apple, there are many elements. Two important players are an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and a family of molecules called polyphenolics. Usually, they are located in two separate compartments in the cell, so they don’t react with each other.
However, when there is damage to an apple, from dropping it or cutting it, for example, the PPO and polyphenolics can touch, and they react chemically to create a brown dye called melanin.
What the scientists at Arctic Apples have done is silenced the PPO gene, preventing it from being there. So even if you cut the apple, there is no chemical reaction possible, therefore preventing browning.
Some are skeptical of genetically modified foods, but there is no need to worry.
The company says, “Arctic apples are one of the most studied foods of all time. They have been rigorously reviewed by reputable regulatory teams at the USDA, FDA, CFIA and Health Canada, based on more than ten years of data and studies and these experts all agree that Arctic apples are as safe and healthy as other apples.”