Within the next few years, you can now eat apple varieties that won't turn brown for a long time even if they have already been sliced and bruised.
How are they able to do that? Well, these apples are genetically modified. Developed by Okanagan Specialty Fruit with business in British Columbia, Canada, these apples have just been recently approved by Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, which is under the Department of Agriculture in the United States.
Okanagan has achieved the results by preventing a certain enzyme that causes browning from being produced. Being GMO doesn't have to mean that the apple won't go brown forever, but it means that they will maintain their fresh appearance significantly longer than non-GMO apples.
However, you won't be seeing these apples anytime soon. It takes some time before these apples will grow, and the first few harvests will go through more tests and research. Once they're ready, they will be sold as Artic Granny and Arctic Golden. It's expected that they will be available to the public in late 2016 for a limited production. In 2017, there will be more supply of it in stores.
As expected, their creation and approval has met a very strong opposition especially from non-GMO organizations. The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) has already expressed its plans to pressure retail stores and companies from selling these types of fruits once they're available, citing the new variants may have some serious health risks not only to humans but also animals. OCA had already sent a petition for application denial to the USDA during the review process.
USDA and Okagan, on the other hand, wish to assure the public that these fruits are going to be safe. Other than the lack of ability to brown, they remain very similar to conventional fruit and don't promote growth of bacteria and fungi.
