Got questions? We’ve got answers!

We are a small biotechnology company with a big vision for the future of the tree fruit industry: To marry nature and science to deliver exciting new tree fruit products that benefit consumers and producers alike.

OSF owner and fruit grower Neal Carter drew on his 29-year, 50-plus country career as an bioresource engineer to found OSF in 1996. Our dynamic company is well established and highly respected; OSF is sought out by U.S. and other government and research organizations to collaborate on tree fruit biotech research. Learn more about us on OSF’s website.

We’ve all experienced the "yuck" factor of a browned apple. Enzymatic browning is the leading cause of discoloration of apples, apple juice and sauce. Arctic Apples are versions of your favorite apple varieties that have been genetically modified to not brown. The science is relatively simple; we "turn off" the genes that makes apples brown, so the enzyme that usually triggers enzymatic browning is no longer present in the apple. We insert nonbrowning apple genes to replace the genes that usually trigger enzymatic browning. In every other way, Arctic Apple trees and their fruit are identical to other apples. That is, until you bruise, bite or cut the apple – then Arctic Apples’ difference is very clear. Everyone benefits from a nonbrowning apple, from the grower to you, the consumer. For more information, see About Arctic Apples and Arctic Apples Story.

Jokes about Botox apples aside, for you the consumer, no “yuck” factor means your family will finish eating those apples instead of throwing them away. That saves you money, and promotes your family’s better health and healthier weight. Cooks will love the ease of preparing dishes with Arctic Apples.

In fact, enzymatic browning is a significant cost to the entire apple “supply chain” – that’s everyone from the grower to the consumer. Nonbrowning Arctic Apples can deliver savings and more palatable fruit all along that supply chain.

Growers will lose fewer apples to finger bruising and bin rubs; packers will be able to pack more apples at higher grades; fresh-cut processors won’t have to chemically treat fresh-cut apples as much; juice processors will have more new product opportunities with a clear juice.

Arctic Apple fruit and trees are essentially identical to other apples and their trees – they grow, bloom and fruit the same. The two primary differences are how the fruit reacts to browning, and the impact that browning has on the apples’ nutritional content. Arctic Apples don’t brown when bruised, bitten, or cut. Browning consumes some of the apple’s health-promoting antioxidants – so by not browning, Arctic Apples retain all of those antioxidants.

Arctic Apples are no overnight success. By the time Arctic Apples reach your market, they will be one of the most researched and tested foods on the planet. The bottom line is that Arctic Apples are no different from other apples – until they are bruised, bitten or cut, that is. Arctic Apple trees grow and fruit no differently than other apple trees. The science behind Arctic Apples is simple compared to other biotech foods already on the market. You can contact us if you have questions we haven’t already answered here. So go ahead, enjoy the convenience of Arctic Apples with confidence (once we get them to market, that is).

After years in development and testing, we are just beginning our journey to market. We are currently building our network of premier producers to grow, pack and/or process Arctic Apples. In the United States, growers are able to book orders for Arctic trees before deregulation, as it takes time to grow trees and get them ready for planting. In Canada, our ability to sell trees is pending deregulation, and we plan to reach this stage in the near future. Once we complete the regulatory review process, we will get fruit to stores and restaurants near you as fast as we can.

Apples aren’t like row crops. First, apple trees aren’t “weedy” – that is, they don’t tend to escape farms and grow in the wild like some other crops. Second, apple blossoms are pollinated by bees, not by the wind. So the risk of “gene flow” by traveling pollen is inherently very low for apples compared to other crops. Our grower standards will further reduce that already-low risk, for example by defining buffer distances between Arctic Apple orchards and other apple orchards.
   
BTW: On the outside chance that cross-pollination with Arctic Apples does occur, genes from the Arctic Apple parent will be present only in some of the resulting apples’ seeds – not in the fruits’ skin or flesh. Apple seeds aren’t eaten or processed into juice or sauce.

We are completely comfortable that Arctic Apples are wholesome and safe. For your comfort level and for full transparency, Arctic Apples sold to the fresh market will be segregated throughout the supply chain and labeled at point of sale. Processed foods containing more than 5 percent Arctic Apples will bear the Arctic logo. Some exceptions may apply, for example pasteurized foods. Heating foods to high temperatures to make them shelf stable also “denatures” – i.e., destroys – their DNA. Hence Arctic and conventional pasteurized juice or sauce are identical. (Segregating fresh apples by variety is standard practice in the apple industry. GMO foods sold in the United States aren’t required to be labeled, but we’re going to do it anyway.)

We don’t comment on the motives of others. We will assure you that the science behind Arctic Apples is relatively simple, and the trees and fruit are no different from other apple trees and fruit (until you bruise, bite or cut the fruit, that is). There’s no frankenfood here, folks – just a modern marriage of nature and science to solve apples’ pesky, costly browning problem. If you have questions about Arctic Apples, we encourage you to learn the facts yourself, and to have an open mind about biotechnology in general.

For various reasons, gene flow is not an issue with apples. Apples aren’t like some row crops. First, apple trees aren’t “weedy” – they don’t escape orchards to grow wild like some other crops can. Growing an Arctic orchard next to a conventional orchard is akin to growing a Gala orchard next to a Granny Smith orchard – they don’t become each other. 

Second, apple blossoms are pollinated by bees, which stay close to the hive when there is ample food present such as in an orchard in bloom. Further, experience has shown that bees have difficulty maneuvering around dense plantings such as buffer rows (or even some high-density apple rows). Hence the risk of bees carrying pollen any distance or across buffers is very low.  

Additionally, at various times over the last century, wind has been disproved as an effective “pollinator” for apples. Additionally, at various times over the last century, wind has been disproved as an effective “pollinator” for apples.

Our grower stewardship standards will further reduce this already-low risk, by defining buffer distances between Arctic and other apple orchards.

The risk of a hive transporting viable Arctic pollen to another orchard when the hive is moved is considered to be nonexistent. Apple pollen, like most fertilization vehicles, is short-lived. High temperatures, such as those in the hive, further speeds that process.

While bees do collect both pollen and nectar, each is stored in separate areas in the hive and used for separate purposes; nectar is made into honey to provide a carbohydrate source for the hive, while pollen becomes a protein source. (Trace amounts of pollen may be present in finished honey, however as noted it is "dead".) Pollen pellets can be sold as a dietary supplement, though here again the pollen would be long “dead” and therefore, no pollination or transfer of genes could occur.

Unlike some other crops, for apples “adventitious presence” – i.e., wild apple trees – is a rare event. Arctic trees behave in the orchard comparably to their conventional counterparts; hence the risk of weediness, or in-orchard LLP, is equally low for Arctic trees. Further, established orchard management practices address removal of adventitious trees, or these are killed off by repeated mowing or herbicide use if they are within the tree row.

Commingling of Arctic fruit in the supply chain is also unlikely due to the traceability and category management practices relied upon in the industry. As part of the OSF stewardship standards, labeling Arctic fruit is a requirement for licensees.

We use an antibiotic marker gene to assure that the change in DNA that creates nonbrowning apples is precise and successful. The marker gene is only used to aid in the transformation of our plants and is not expressed in Arctic Apples.

Apple transformation is incredibly inefficient. In a single transformation we use 600 to 1000 pieces of apple leaf tissue. Each leaf piece is made up of millions of apple cells, meaning we use around 600 million apple cells in a single transformation. In a successful transformation, between one and five plants are successfully transformed, each of these growing from a single transformed apple cell. At best, five cells get transformed out of the 600 million that we start with. And that is why we use the antibiotic resistance gene - if we didn`t, we would never be able to find the cells that were transformed.

The marker gene that we use, which is from naturally occurring bacteria, provides resistance to the antibiotic “kanamycin”. Bacteria have relied on this resistance, and many others like it, since the beginning of time for their own survival. We attach the kanamycin resistance gene to the apple gene sequence that turns off the enzyme that initiates apple browning. Then, these genes are inserted into our plant tissue. 

Just after putting these two genes into our apple tissue, our scientists grow our plantlets in the presence of kanamycin. Because our nonbrowning apple genes are attached to the kanamycin resistance gene, only the plant tissue that contains the kanamycin resistance will survive. Plant tissue with no kanamycin resistance gene, and thus no nonbrowning apple genes, cannot grow in the presence of kanamycin. 

The kanamycin resistance gene, known as nptII (neomycin phosphotransferase II), produces a protein that causes our plant tissue to be resistant to the antibiotic kanamycin. The nptII gene is one of the most widely used marker genes in plant transformations, and is so common in nature it was granted GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) status by the FDA. This protein is only produced in leaf tissue in sufficient quantities to make the leaves resistant to kanamycin, allowing our scientists to use this ‘marker’ to identify successful and precise placement of our nonbrowning genes. No nptII protein is expressed in Arctic Apples.

Marker genes are but a tool for scientists and are non-functional in the final plants. No ‘resistance genes’ are found in the fruit, so no such resistance is transferred to humans. Remember, kanamycin resistance exists all around us as a naturally occurring part of soil bacteria, to help keep bacteria thriving.