UK Clears Non-Browning Banana, Pending Safety Review

Is this clever science cutting food waste or cosmetic engineering that dodges the real problem?

Published SEP 29

UK Clears Non-Browning Banana, Pending Safety Review

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Above: Person slicing a banana. Image credit: Bettina Brinkmann/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

A banana that stays yellow after slicing is smart science solving a real problem, since mountains of perfectly good fruit, especially in prepackaged foods, get binned over a bruise or a brown streak. Precision breeding just speeds up changes ordinary breeding could make anyway, so there's no reason to treat it with suspicion. Less waste, lower emissions and fresher fruit is a win worth welcoming.

The Guardian Daily Mail

Establishment-critical narrative

Engineering bananas to stay yellow after slicing treats a symptom while deeper causes of food waste remain. Bananas are edible through much of their ripening, yet consumers reject them for brown spots or a few hours of browning, even when perfectly good fruit sits in the bowl. Instead of another technological fix, fixing squeamishness about brown bananas costs nothing and works better.

Pen and Spoon on Substack