A GMO Apple that does not turn brown

lynn_glenmont

jgnatca wrote: »

Kiwi fruit started out as kiwi berries (Chinese Gooseberry)
Kiwi are pretty well accepted now even though they are a human intervention.

Pretty much all of the food we eat other than wild-caught seafood and game is the result of human intervention. Most people wouldn't like nature's original ideas for apples and corn.

lynn_glenmont

[quote="paperpudding;c-40871886"]i can see that pre cut apples are good for some situations - people like me who dont eat whole apples but only like slices of them - I slice them myself but perhaps if I was travelling it might be convenient.

I think the biggest market for the ones in my supermarket are for children in lunchboxes - where there isnt a parent to cut them up (eg at school) and likewise the ones in Mcdonalds.

I don't get why there is a new GMO variety though - you can get pre sliced apples in vaccuum sealed bags now.

PS re comment about any pre sliced fruit/veg - I love that I can buy a pre cut wedge of melon, pumpkin etc - when one lives in a household of only 1 or 2 people and a whole melon/pumpkin would be far too much and half go to waste.[/quote]


This is another thing I like about getting relatively local apples in mainly heritage varieties at farm stands -- I can pick out the smaller ones that are more the size I want to eat -- and that, to me, often taste better. In the grocery store, they're generally all the same size: too large.

lemurcat12

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

This is another thing I like about getting relatively local apples in mainly heritage varieties at farm stands -- I can pick out the smaller ones that are more the size I want to eat -- and that, to me, often taste better. In the grocery store, they're generally all the same size: too large.

We have some good ones in the grocery store -- I am enjoying some honeycrisps from the grocery store and they are normal sized, but I agree to preferring the local ones from the green market and the variety of different kinds.

Rosemary7391

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

[quote="paperpudding;c-40871886"]i can see that pre cut apples are good for some situations - people like me who dont eat whole apples but only like slices of them - I slice them myself but perhaps if I was travelling it might be convenient.

I think the biggest market for the ones in my supermarket are for children in lunchboxes - where there isnt a parent to cut them up (eg at school) and likewise the ones in Mcdonalds.

I don't get why there is a new GMO variety though - you can get pre sliced apples in vaccuum sealed bags now.

PS re comment about any pre sliced fruit/veg - I love that I can buy a pre cut wedge of melon, pumpkin etc - when one lives in a household of only 1 or 2 people and a whole melon/pumpkin would be far too much and half go to waste.

This is another thing I like about getting relatively local apples in mainly heritage varieties at farm stands -- I can pick out the smaller ones that are more the size I want to eat -- and that, to me, often taste better. In the grocery store, they're generally all the same size: too large.[/quote]

Are you in the US? I found that when I was travelling there, even the smallest were huge compared to UK apples.


Even non browning apples will need some packaging (like pre cut carrot) so I can't see that the saving will be all that much...

jgnatca

Why would a non browning apple need any packaging? I predict within the decade all the apples in the US will be non-browning. (I think the EU will hold out non-GMO and food options will diverge).

Rosemary7391

To stop dust and muck from people picking it up getting on it? And to stop it drying out? Precut I'm talking about. Things that don't go brown, like carrot for instance, are still packaged when pre cut.

I really don't think it's that big a deal... why bother with the GMO apple for cases where it's non browning doesn't matter anyway? And that's the majority of use...

Sp1tfire

I will only try it if they promise it'll help me grow a third arm.

lynn_glenmont

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

[quote="paperpudding;c-40871886"]i can see that pre cut apples are good for some situations - people like me who dont eat whole apples but only like slices of them - I slice them myself but perhaps if I was travelling it might be convenient.

I think the biggest market for the ones in my supermarket are for children in lunchboxes - where there isnt a parent to cut them up (eg at school) and likewise the ones in Mcdonalds.

I don't get why there is a new GMO variety though - you can get pre sliced apples in vaccuum sealed bags now.

PS re comment about any pre sliced fruit/veg - I love that I can buy a pre cut wedge of melon, pumpkin etc - when one lives in a household of only 1 or 2 people and a whole melon/pumpkin would be far too much and half go to waste.

This is another thing I like about getting relatively local apples in mainly heritage varieties at farm stands -- I can pick out the smaller ones that are more the size I want to eat -- and that, to me, often taste better. In the grocery store, they're generally all the same size: too large.

Are you in the US? I found that when I was travelling there, even the smallest were huge compared to UK apples.


Even non browning apples will need some packaging (like pre cut carrot) so I can't see that the saving will be all that much...[/quote]

Yes, I'm in the U.S.
The tendency to sell only the largest specimens in the produce section has gotten so bad that I now see a number of grocery stores selling special "kid-sized" apples and sometimes other fruit.

lynn_glenmont

jgnatca wrote: »

Why would a non browning apple need any packaging? I predict within the decade all the apples in the US will be non-browning. (I think the EU will hold out non-GMO and food options will diverge).

Surely if they're selling them sliced they will be in packaging?? I sure as heck wouldn't buy sliced apples from a bin where the sliced surfaces are exposed to bacteria in the air, on the legs of what ever insect lands on them, on the hands of other shoppers ...

lynn_glenmont

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

To stop dust and muck from people picking it up getting on it? And to stop it drying out? Precut I'm talking about. Things that don't go brown, like carrot for instance, are still packaged when pre cut.

I really don't think it's that big a deal... why bother with the GMO apple for cases where it's non browning doesn't matter anyway? And that's the majority of use...

Increasingly in the various grocery stores I shop in, all types of produce, pre-cut or not, are sold packaged. The only nonpackaged carrots I've seen in a grocery store (as opposed to a farm stand or farmer's market) in years -- probably decades -- have still been bound in "bunches" and priced per "bunch" (quotes because carrots don't grow in bunches), with tops attached, and priced at a large premium over a 1 lb or 2 lb bag of ordinary, uncut, but topless carrots (hubba-hubba ).

I like to pick out my own green beans and other bean pods, so I can get ones that are neither nothing but pod nor so mature the pods will be tough. But I don't often see them sold loose anymore in grocery stores, just in bags.

I suspect it's a combination of providing a convenience factor some customers appreciate and cutting costs (cheaper to ship pre-package from a field-side packaging plant and possibly less waste, as some of the produce in a loose bin will be rejected by consumers as they pick through it and have to be discarded).

paperpudding

Really Lynn??

That is so different to where I live - in the supermarket, I can get loose carrots, bananas, capsicums, mandarines, oranges, kiwi fruit, beans, cucumber, zucchini, onions, potatoes, peaches etc etc.

Yes, I understand packaging for cut items like apple slices or wedges of melon or small squishy things like strawberries - but seems odd to need all those other things packaged .

lynn_glenmont

paperpudding wrote: »

Really Lynn??

That is so different to where I live - in the supermarket, I can get loose carrots, bananas, capsicums, mandarines, oranges, kiwi fruit, beans, cucumber, zucchini, onions, potatoes, peaches etc etc.

Yes, I understand packaging for cut items like apple slices or wedges of melon or small squishy things like strawberries - but seems odd to need all those other things packaged .

Really. I'm in the U.S. Maybe you're somewhere else? (I'm guessing you must be, because everyone I know says peppers, not capsicums.)

Bananas are sold loose (well, they're usually put out in bunches, but you're free to break off however many you might want). Peppers/capsicums are starting to show up more frequently in bags but they're still generally available loose. Mandarins I generally only see in boxes or bags. Oranges show up both loose and in bags. Kiwi fruit are almost always packaged. Beans, as I said, almost always packaged. Cucumber and zucchini are sold loose. Onions and potatoes are available both loose and packaged (although those are things that if I was cooking for more people on a regular basis, I would probably buy in a bag anyway). Peaches are still sold loose (although generally hard as a rock in the grocery store).

paperpudding

I am in Australia.

So, many of the the loose things here are sold loose there too, more than I understood from the way I read your previous post