Genetically engineered apples and potatoes pass FDA safety assessment as GMO apples also get Canadian approval

Two varieties of genetically engineered apples and six types of genetically altered potatoes offer just as much nutrition and as little safety risk as their conventional relatives, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ruled.

Agency officials announced that the “Arctic Apples” by Okanagan Specialty Fruits and the “Innate” potatoes from J. R. Simplot Company passed the voluntary safety tests on Friday after the two products picked up approvals from the U.S. Department of Agriculture last month.

In addition, Canadian health officials OK’d the sale and planting of the modified Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apples throughout Canada on Friday,Health Canada announced.

British Columbia-based Okanagan designed the new apples to be more resistant to browning and bruising, while Idaho-headquartered Simplot has introduced potatoes that are less susceptible to bruising and produce smaller amounts of a chemical that is carcinogenic to lab rats when they’re cooked, according to an FDA release on the test results.

The companies supplied safety and nutritional documentation and consulted with agency officials as part of the safety tests, according to the FDA.

“The consultation process includes a review of information provided by a company about the nature of the molecular changes and the nutritional composition of the food compared to traditionally bred varieties,” said Dennis Keefe, the director of the FDA’s Office of Food Additive Safety, in a statement. “This case-by-case safety evaluation ensures that food safety issues are resolved prior to commercial distribution.”

Simplot will cultivate 2,000 acres of the new Ranger Russet, Russet Burbank and Atlantic potatoes this year, while Okanagan plans to plant 75,000 trees bearing its new fruit in 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Neither company is mandated to label the genetically engineered products, the publication noted. But FDA officials concluded that the different characteristics of the GMOs may require disclosure to the consumer “in certain circumstances,” according to the agency’s release.