World's First, Japan Starts Selling Edited Genome Tomatoes

Sicilian Rouge High GABA is a special type of tomato made with high levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an amino acid that is believed to promote relaxation and help lower blood pressure.

Reported from the Oddity Central page, Friday (9/24/2021), startup Sanatech Seed Co. The Tokyo-based team teamed up with scientists at the University of Tsukuba to develop a new tomato variety using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology.

Named Sicilian Rouge High GABA, this new type of tomato contains an amino acid called gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA 5 to 6 times higher than normal tomatoes. According to Japanese media, the company removed the inhibitory domain in the tomato genome to allow it to produce this high level of GABA.

According to Shimpei Takeshita, President of Sanatech Seed and Chief Innovation Officer of Pioneer EcoScience, the exclusive distributor of tomatoes, the company was granted permission to trade the genetically modified High GABA Sicilian Rouge variety last December, and contract growers have been growing it around the clock. Now, the tomatoes are ready to be displayed on store shelves.

Terms of Trading Tomatoes

"Initially we had mixed reactions to the genome-edited food, and we thought it would be difficult to bring it to market because it was not fully understood by consumers," Takeshita Tatsuo, chairman of Sanatech Seed told NHK.

"But tomatoes have a good reputation from those who take part in cultivation trials."

A Japanese health ministry committee gave Sanatech Seed permission to sell this new tomato variety, provided a notice must be included, and the startup plans to ship each tomato package with a sticker that says "enhanced using genome-editing technology".

Unlike sekilas tentang togel singapur genetically modified foods, genome-edited plant varieties are considered as safe as varieties enhanced using conventional methods because no outside genes contribute during the process.

Sanatech Seed has started taking online orders for Sicilian Rouge High GABA tomatoes. A box of 3 kilograms of tomatoes reportedly costs 7,500 yen, or about 68 dollars (970 thousand rupiah), a price that is quite expensive for tomatoes.