Get ready for GMO fruit salad as modified apples head to Midwest

Washington

GENETICALLY modified fruit salad just got real. Along with virus-resistant papayas, apples are joining the ranks of biotech fruit sold in US grocery stores.

The first commercial harvest of GMO golden delicious apples will be going from Washington state orchards to around 400 Midwestern grocery stores in early November. They'll be sold sliced up in 10-ounce grab bags, and because they're modified, they take much longer to brown when exposed to the air.

While GMO crops are the mainstream for US commodities like corn and soyabeans, that isn't the case with fruits. There's little financial incentive to develop and commercialise modified fruits because of the costs of changing food rules and the risks of consumer pushback, said Kevin Folta, a horticulture professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Papayas from Hawaii, engineered to resist a deadly virus, are the only …