Products & Services

Non-Browning Apple

Okanagan Specialty Fruits' platform project aims to inhibit the enzymatic browning in apples. Most people have experienced how apples go brown and recognize this as an unappealing characteristic. OSF has developed a technique to inhibit the Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) gene in apples to halt this browning oxidation reaction. Consistent with our precision breeding approach, we are using the silencing of an existing apple gene to develop new apple varieties that do not go brown when sliced, bruised, scuffed or bitten into. The PPO inhibited apple project has now achieved proof of concept success as shown in the photos.  We plan to commercialize this product in 2009/10.