Fruits and vegetables could stay fresher for a lot longer as gene-edited foods could hit supermarket shelves as son as next year.
Parliament is preparing to pass new legislation which will allow British consumers to have access to food modified to last longer. The bill has already passed through the House of Commons and will be debated in its final reading by the Lords on Tuesday.
It’s understood that these gene-edited foods will hopefully allow British consumers to benefit from healthier food with a lower environmental impact.
Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Daniel Zeichner said in a statement to The Independent: “Precision breeding is a real chance to transform how we grow crops here in England.
“We can turbo charge the natural breeding process our farmers have used for generations to create food that's more nutritious, crops that can withstand our changing climate, and plants that naturally resist disease”, he continued. “This is essential for our farmers to thrive and for our nation's food security. That's exactly why this legislation matters.
“This isn't about abstract science - research trials are already delivering, from tomatoes with high levels of vitamin D to sugar beet that is less reliant on pesticides.”
Already, UK crop-growing industries are developing products in line with the new act, supported by the Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).
The John Innes Centre, a research institute in Norwich, has developed a tomato using precision breeding with a high amount of vitamin D in the fruit and leaves.
Another Norwich-based company, Tropic, has developed a non-browning banana, as well as a banana resistant to Panama disease, which could help to reduce food waste.
Other crops could include virus-resistant sugar beets, which may help to reduce neonicotinoid pesticides and yield losses that cost the sector £67 million in 2020.
Mr Zeichner added: “It's really exciting that innovations that once took decades could now reach our fields and ultimately our plates in just a few years, and delivering on our promise of sustainable economic growth.
“This isn't just good news for our farming communities but our thriving science and research sector will benefit too, positioning us at the forefront of cutting-edge technology across the world.”
The Genetic Technology (Precision Breedng) Act passed into law in March 2023. It outlined a new regulatory framework for plants and animals developed through precision breeding, which is when a range of technologies - such as gene editing - can make the same type of genetic changes as traditional breeding but in a more efficient and precise way.
This is different to genetic modification (GM), where products contain genetic changes that could not have occurred through traditional breeding.
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