Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved a genetically modified purple tomato. The tomatoes will be commercially grown after receiving approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and will be on the shelves in 2023.
According to reports, this purple tomato is called “big purple tomato”, the taste and ordinary red tomatoes, but contains high levels of anthocyanins. And the shelf life of this purple tomato is longer, can reach two times the red tomato.
Developed by a team of scientists, including Cathie Martin, a biochemist at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and head of the John Innes Centre project in Norwich, U.K. Martin, who specializes in flower pigment research, was funded by a German consortium to study boosting anthocyanins in tomatoes in hopes of “improve the fruit’s antioxidant capacity.”
To grow purple tomatoes, scientists used transcription factors from goldenseal to stimulate tomatoes to produce more anthocyanins. in 2008, Martin and colleagues published their first findings in nature Biotechnology. The study showed that cancer-susceptible mice that consumed purple tomatoes lived about 30 percent longer than mice that ate regular tomatoes.
Martin has now established Norfolk Plant Sciences (NPS) to bring purple tomatoes to market. Trial sales are expected to take place in 2023 to test which consumers are more interested in purple tomatoes.
Source: International Fruit and Vegetable Report
Post time: Sep-23-2022