For the first time ever, you can now buy a food altered by CRISPR gene editing – at least, if you live in Japan, where the Sicilian Rouge High GABA tomato has just gone on sale.
“We started shipping the tomatoes on September 17,” says Minako Sumiyoshi at Japanese start-up Sanatech Seed, which is selling the tomatoes directly to consumers. She says demand for the tomatoes is “not too bad”.
“It is a very significant milestone for CRISPR foods,” says at Rothamsted Research in the UK.
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Earlier this year, Sanatech Seed also gave away seedlings to anyone who wanted to grow the gene-edited tomatoes themselves. Around 4200 gardeners took up the offer, says Sumiyoshi.
As far as żěè¶ĚĘÓƵ has been able to establish, the tomato is the first food altered with CRISPR to be launched commercially anywhere in the world. Consumers in the US are already eating gene-edited soybean oil, but it was created using an older method of gene editing.
“Looking at the media, it seems like our tomato is the first CRISPR/Cas9 product, but we don’t know if it really is,” says Sumiyoshi.
“As far as I know [it is the first],” says at the Genetic Literacy Project, a US-based non-profit organisation. “Corteva’s CRISPR corn has gotten clearance in Canada, but I’ve not heard that it’s yet released.”
A non-bruising mushroom created by CRISPR was approved in the US in 2016, says Halford. “However, I do not know if it went on sale.”
The Sicilian Rouge High GABA tomato produces less of an enzyme that breaks down the amino acid GABA, or gamma-aminobutyric acid, resulting in the tomatoes containing five times as much GABA as normal tomatoes. GABA is produced in our bodies and plays a key role in the brain and nervous system. It is also sold as a dietary supplement. The benefits of eating extra GABA are debated, but a review of the evidence last year concluded that “GABA intake may have beneficial effects on stress and sleep”.
Gene editing involves changing an organism’s existing DNA, whereas earlier forms of genetic engineering usually involved adding extra bits of DNA from other organisms. Because many changes introduced by gene editing also occur naturally, in some countries, foods produced using this method aren’t subject to the same rules as other genetically modified crops.
In December 2020, regulatory authorities in Japan decided not to regulate Sicilian Rouge High GABA as genetically modified, paving the way for its launch this year.
The company is also considering launching the tomato in other countries. The US Department of Agriculture has already confirmed that Sicilian Rouge High GABA won’t be regulated in the same way as conventional genetically modified crops.
In the UK and European Union, the tomato would currently be regulated as genetically modified, making it prohibitively expensive to get approval. However, the UK is expected to alter its laws soon. Sanatech Seed has previously said it is “keeping a close eye” on regulations in the UK.
Proponents of gene editing say the technology will have many benefits for consumers and the environment, as well as for farmers and farm animals. For instance, cattle have been edited to make their coats lighter to help them cope with a warming climate.
Many other CRISPR products are being developed. Japanese authorities are currently assessing a red sea bream that has had its genome edited to produce up to 50 per cent more muscle. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, .
Field trials of a CRISPR wheat created by Halford’s team have begun in the UK. Bread made from this wheat will have lower levels of the cancer-causing substance acrylamide.
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