The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finds the first generation of Innate potato varieties is as safe and nutritious as conventional potatoes.
The J. R. Simplot Company is working with growers and retailers to bring to the US market several popular potato varieties with improved traits that benefit consumers, food producers, and growers.
Innate potatoes have fewer black spots from bruising, stay whiter longer when cut or peeled, and have lower levels of naturally-occurring asparagine, resulting in less acrylamide when cooked at high temperatures.
They are also less prone to pressure bruising during storage, resulting in less potato waste and potentially millions of dollars in savings to growers every year.
The FDA statement comes after the recent US Department of Agriculture deregulation of Innate potatoes.
The authority’s safety consultation on Innate potatoes was voluntarily requested by Simplot as a further evaluation of the Innate technology that has been in development for more than a decade.
These federal clearances involved years of technical review and a thorough public comment period that drew the support of 14 potato research universities in the US and Europe.
“The Innate potato is the most promising advancement in the potato industry I’ve seen in my 30 years studying agriculture,” said David S. Douches, Ph.D. at the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Michigan State University who has implemented field trials of Innate.
“This potato delivers significant health and sustainability benefits, all by using the potato’s own DNA. Such advancements haven’t been possible using traditional breeding.”
Simplot used the techniques of modern biotechnology to accelerate the traditional breeding process and introduce new traits by triggering the potato’s ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) pathway.
RNAi is a natural cellular process commonly used by plants and animals to modulate expression of certain genes, and has been used effectively in multiple commercial crops sold over the last decade.
The three Innate varieties are expected to be available in limited quantities beginning in 2015 in the fresh and fresh-cut markets where the sustainability, higher quality and health benefits have significant value to growers and consumers.
A second generation of Innate potatoes, currently under review by the USDA and the US Environmental Protection Agency, will offer two improvements to the potato, including increased resistance to late blight disease and better storability.
These advantages will create significant sustainability advances, such as reduced reliance on fungicides and fewer rejected potatoes.
