Bananas Browning Too Fast? Throw Them in the CRISPR

Ever binned a banana because it got too brown? Bitten off a bit but been bemused by a bruise? You’re not alone. Studies estimate that people in the US throw away up to 5 billion bananas a year. Yet a solution may be on the way, starting on shelves in the UK.

Tropic is a Britain-based plant tech company. It has developed a banana that resists browning. Tropic says the fruit’s taste and texture are very close to that of a normal nanner. Yet it is engineered to stay “fresh, yellow, and appetising long after peeling and slicing,” the company told The Guardian.

Bananas contain polyphenol oxidase. It is an enzyme. It's what turns peeled bananas brown when exposed to air. Tropic found three gene sequences in banana DNA that cause them to produce polyphenol oxidase. The company then used a gene editing technique to remove them. It's called CRISPR. It can cut specific genes out of longer DNA chains. The resulting fruit stays yellow and fresh-looking for up to two days longer than other bananas, Tropic says.

The company also notes that the CRISPR tech could reduce banana food waste. When fruit rots, it emits greenhouse gases. Less food waste means less gas. Tropic told The Guardian that its bananas could cut more than 9 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. That could help fight climate change.

Up next for the new Tropic fruit: a safety review by Britain’s Food Standards Agency.

Reflect: What's one small change you could make to waste less food?

Photo of a bunch of bananas from Unsplash courtesy of Giorgio Trovato.