Flavr Savr facts for kids

The Flavr Savr (pronounced "flavor saver") was a special kind of tomato that was changed using genetic engineering. It was the very first genetically engineered food allowed to be sold for people to eat.

This tomato was created by a company called Calgene in California during the 1980s. The Flavr Savr tomato was designed to stay fresh longer, fight off fungal infections better, and be a bit thicker than regular tomatoes. The main idea was to let the tomatoes ripen fully on the plant, which makes them taste better, and then still be able to ship them long distances without them spoiling.

Calgene added two extra genes to the Flavr Savr tomato. One gene helped slow down the rotting process by stopping a certain enzyme. The other gene helped scientists identify the modified plants by making them resistant to some antibiotics like kanamycin.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) checked the Flavr Savr tomato in 1992. In 1994, the FDA said the tomato was "as safe as tomatoes bred by conventional means." It was first sold in 1994, but only for a few years, stopping production in 1997. Calgene made history, but the high costs of making the tomato meant the company didn't make enough money. Eventually, another company called Monsanto Company bought Calgene.

How the Flavr Savr Tomato Was Made

Regular tomatoes spoil quickly once they are ripe and firm. This can be a problem when shipping them from where they grow to faraway markets. If tomatoes are picked when they are ripe, they might go bad before they reach stores. To solve this, tomatoes for shipping are often picked when they are green and unripe. Then, they are made to ripen just before they are sold using a gas called ethylene. The problem with this is that the tomato doesn't finish its natural growing process, so it doesn't taste as good.

Calgene hoped to make the Flavr Savr tomato ripen more slowly using genetic engineering. This would stop it from getting soft too early. This way, the tomato could ripen fully on the vine for better taste and still be shipped long distances without getting squishy.

Scientists at Calgene used a special bacterium called Agrobacterium tumefaciens to put new genetic material into the Flavr Savr plant cells. This bacterium naturally puts foreign genes into plants as part of its life. The scientists removed the harmful parts of the bacterium's genetic material and replaced them with the useful genes they wanted to add to the tomato.

The Flavr Savr tomato was made more resistant to rotting by adding a special gene. This gene stopped the production of an enzyme called Beta polygalacturonase. This enzyme usually helps break down the pectin in the tomato's cell walls, which makes the fruit soft and more likely to get damaged by fungal infections.

However, the Flavr Savr tomato didn't become as firm as researchers hoped. While the gene did help it last longer, it didn't make the tomato firm enough for machines to pick and transport easily when ripe. So, these tomatoes still had to be picked carefully, like other ripe tomatoes. Later, Calgene tried to make the Flavr Savr taste even better by breeding it with other tasty tomato types. This helped them sell the Flavr Savr at a higher price.

The Flavr Savr also had a gene that made it resistant to an antibiotic called kanamycin. Scientists used this gene during the tomato's creation to help them find which plants had successfully received the new genes. Kanamycin is harmful to some plant parts. So, when researchers put tomato plants in high levels of kanamycin, only the plants that had the added genes survived.

What Happened to Flavr Savr

Because of the high costs for research and making the tomatoes, and not making enough money, Calgene was sold to the Monsanto Company in 1997. Monsanto bought all of Calgene's products, including the Flavr Savr. However, Monsanto was more interested in Calgene's patents for certain important technologies. The Flavr Savr tomato has not been produced since then.

Some people believe the Flavr Savr didn't succeed because Calgene didn't have enough experience in growing and shipping tomatoes.

Genetically Modified Tomato Paste

In the UK, another company called Zeneca made a tomato paste using similar technology to the Flavr Savr. This genetically modified tomato paste was cheaper to make than regular tomato paste. Because of this, it was sold for 20% less.

Between 1996 and 1999, about 1.8 million cans of this tomato paste were sold in big supermarkets like Sainsbury's and Safeway UK. These cans were clearly labeled as being made from genetically engineered tomatoes. At one point, this special paste even sold more than regular tomato paste. But sales started to drop in late 1998.

The UK's House of Commons of the United Kingdom looked into why sales went down. They said it was because people's opinions about genetically modified crops started to change. This change was influenced by things like how products were labeled, how much choice people felt they had, and what the media reported. News reports about genetically modified foods became more negative around that time. After this, Sainsbury's and Safeway both promised that their own store brand products would not contain genetically modified ingredients.

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