It is true that there are GMO crops used in the food we buy at the grocery store. It’s possible that up to 80% of processed foods sold in the U.S. contain some type of GMO or “bio-engineered” (BE) plant. The most frequent source is corn, especially corn starch, high fructose corn syrup, and corn oil. Soybean products like soybean oil are also likely to be BE. And, finally, most canola (rapeseed) used to produce canola oil is GMO. But what are the GMO fruits and vegetables in America? There are only a few GMO plants used or sold in the U.S. on a commercial basis. In this article, I will provide an overview of these genetically engineered plants produced in the U.S.
GMO or genetically modified organism is a confusing name as all the fruits and vegetables we commonly buy have been genetically modified by humans, sometimes over thousands of years. Selective breeding is one way humans modify plant crops to suit our needs. Here, instead, we are talking about the modification of genes in a lab. A better term for this is bio-engineered (BE) or genetically engineered (GE). In this article, I will use the term BE and GMO interchangeably. That said, the majority of the fruits, vegetables, or legumes you buy are not BE crops.
Most GMO fruits and vegetables in America are engineered to be herbicide-tolerant (HT), insect-resistant (Bt), or are “stacked” to combine both HT and Bt traits. Other BE traits have been developed such as virus and fungus resistance, drought resistance, and enhanced protein, oil, or vitamin content. However, HT and Bt traits are the most used in U.S. crop production. HT seeds are common in alfalfa, canola, and sugar beet production, but the three GMO crops planted most widely are corn, cotton, and soybeans.
Among the food products that contain genetically engineered plant ingredients that Americans regularly buy, cornstarch, corn syrup, corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil, or granulated sugar stand out as the most likely sources of BE ingredients. There are relatively few fresh fruit and vegetables available in GMO varieties. These include potatoes, summer squash, apples, papayas, and pink pineapples. Most of the GMO crops sold in the U.S. are used for animal food.
List of GMO Fruits and Vegetables in America
GMO (BE) Corn
The most common BE crop in the US is corn, especially corn used in processed foods. If a food product contains corn or is made from corn, assume it is GMO corn.
There are many types of BE corn. They are produced to be herbicide resistant, herbicide tolerant, insect resistant, or drought tolerant. Some are meant to increase the amount of a certain nutrient in the corn, such as lysine, an amino acid that corn is normally deficient in.
Trade names for BE field corn include:
- Roundup Ready™
- Roundup Ready™ 2
- Agrisure®
- Duracade™
- Enlist™
- Genuity®
- DroughtGard™
- Optimum™
- GAT™
- Agrisure™
- Viptera
- YieldGard™ VT
- Pro™
- Enogen™ (high alpha-amylase)
- Agrisure™ RW
- Mavera™ Maize
- YieldGard™ VT™
- Rootworm™ RR2
- Herculex™ RW
- Herculex™ I
- Herculex™ CB
- Rootworm RW
- MaxGard™
- InVigor™
- Starlink™
All of these corns are field corns used in the food industry. In the United States, more than half of the field corn produced is BE corn. The same is true in Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Honduras, South Africa, and Uruguay. If corn is sourced from the U.S. or any of these countries, it should be assumed to be BE. Non-BE corn is often much more expensive than BE corn and given the way corn moves around the world, it is safe to assume that most corn is GMO. 1https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/BECornCropSummary.pdf
GMO Sweet Corn or Corn on the Cob
There are only a few types of sweet corn that may be available in the U.S. Attribute and Attribute II are trade names for sweet corn that is insect resistant and herbicide resistant. It is a “BT corn” meaning it produces a protein found in a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The protein helps the corn be resistant to certain insects all season long while not harming certain beneficial insects like Ladybugs and Assassin bugs. It resists European corn borer, Corn earworm, Fall armyworm, Western bean cutworm, Beet armyworm, and Southern cornstalk borer. This BE corn, developed by Syngenta. It is sometimes sold in grocery stores as fresh corn on the cob and is usually sold directly to stores by farmers or offered at farmer’s markets.
Attribute sweet corn is likely to be found anywhere in the United States. There are major production areas in Midwest states like Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and also regions in the South and West. The corn is particularly suited to the Northern United States as well as Canada due to it’s suitability for cold weather and short growing season. You will find it sold simply as sweet corn except in some specific areas with specific labelling laws.
GMO Apples
There are a few GMO apples that are produced to be non-browning, meaning they will not turn brown quickly when peeled or cut. According to the company that developed them, they also stay fresh longer after being sliced. These apples are sold under the brand name “Arctic” and include Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Gala, and Fuji apples. You’re not likely to come across these right now as there production is minor. They are only produced commercially in the United States. They have been approved for production in Canada, but no trees have yet been planted.
Apples turn brown because of the presence of and polyphenol oxidases (PPOs). In intact fruits, these phenols and PPOs are separate from each other, located in different departments in the cells. When the apple cells are damaged, these compounds come into contact with each other and react to form quinones which become pigmented polymer compounds. These compounds are responsible for the flesh of apples turning brown after being cut or bitten. A similar process occurs in other browning fruits. This is a natural process and doesn’t make the apple less nutritious, but it is off-putting and undesirable. Arctic apples were developed to address this trait in common apple varieties by using the apple’s own genes to “turn off” PPO enzyme production.
Arctic Apples were developed Okanagan Specialty Fruits located in British Columbia, Canada.
(OSF). They are sold as pre-sliced or diced packaged apples. They may be found branded with the Arctic tradename or in private-label packaging and are sold in convenience stores and grocery stores.
GMO Papaya
There are GMO papayas called “Rainbow Papayas” and “SunUp Papayas.” There were developed in Hawaii to prevent the papaya ringspot virus from wiping out the papaya industry. While this worked, it hasn’t exactly been great for the Hawaiian papaya industry as it closed off some lucrative export markets and organic markets. As well, there has been widespread contamination found in other papaya crops. Note that this does not mean that all GMO crops have such a problem. These papayas are also grown in China but are not permitted into the U.S. from that country.
The Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) appeared in Puna, Hawaii in 1992 and subsequently wreaked havoc on the papaya industry. Once a papaya tree is infected with this virus, it cannot recover, and aphids, insects that feed on the trees, help spread the virus quickly. Young seedlings never produce fruit and older trees developed yellow leaves and then produce smaller and smaller fruits. Seeds of Rainbow papaya, developed to resist this virus, were released in 1998 and were widely and enthusiastically adopted. This transgenic variety was developed by Dennis Gonsalves, a Hawaiian-born scientist at Cornell University, and researchers at the University of Hawaii.
Rainbow papayas were produced by crossing the standard export variety from Hawaii, the “Kaphoho” with a papaya called “SunUp” which was engineered to resist PRSV. This was accomplished by adding a gene from the virus to the papaya itself. This gene from the virus was found to prevent infection from the virus. This miniscule amount of genetic material from the virus has no effect on humans, and plant viruses cannot infect us. In fact, you have probably consumed many plant foods that are infected with viruses throughout your life. 1https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/apsnetfeatures/Pages/PapayaHawaiianRainbow.aspx,2https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/nph-1.pdf
Pineapple
One type of GMO pineapple might be found in the United States, marketed by Del Monte. These pineapples have a pink flesh. If a pineapple has a regular yellow flesh, you can assume it is not GMO. The pink pineapples were engineered to increase the levels of carotenoids and inhibit flowering.
GMO Potatoes
BE potato versions have been developed for three potato cultivars, Atlantic, Ranger Russet and Russet Burbank. They were developed for various traits including virus resistance, insect resistance, reduced black spot formation and bruising, blight protection and reduced levels of asparagine and reducing sugars (less starch breakdown into simple sugars during storage, presumably for cold temperatures). The production of these potatoes is minor.
The only GMO potato currently sold fresh is marketed under the brand name “White Russet.” These potatoes were produced by J.R. Simplot Company and have two engineered advantages. The first new trait reduces potato browning and bruising. Both can occur during packing, processing, storage, or transport.
Potato browning itself does not ruin a potato but it does cause consumers to throw away and thus waste a lot of potato each year. The flesh of White Russets not only stays white during handling, even in harsh conditions, but also stays white when cut. This is great for the consumer but also prevents the need for additives when the potatoes are cut while being processed.
The second trait engineered trait in White Russet potatoes addresses the production of acrylamide during high heat cooking, especially frying. The chemical, a possible carcinogen, is formed when asparagine is subjected to high heat. The amount of asparagine in White Russet potatoes has been reduced, thus reducing the mount of acrylamide formation. Note that the carcinogenic properties of acrylamide in humans are probably overstated. While acrylamide has been shown to cause cancer in animals at very high and downright impossible doses, there has never been a direct link shown between acrylamide exposure and cancer in humans.
You can read more about BE potatoes here.
Squash (Summer)
There are some GMO summer squash (yellow crookneck squash) cultivars in the US. Their production is minor. They are genetically engineered to be resistant to plant viruses like zucchini yellow mosaic virus ,watermelon mosaic virus, and cucumber mosaic virus. These viruses cause a great deal the squash crop to be lost. This virus resisting GE trait has been transferred to zucchini through regular conventional breeding.
The first of these GE squash varieties was developed by Asgrow Seed Co. and first planted in 1995. Transferring the trait to zucchini was accomplished by 1996. This was simple since, in reality, yellow squash and zucchini are the same species and easily interbreed.
Neither GE summer squash or zucchini have been widely adopted by farmers and it is quite unlikely you are buying and eating them or have ever done so. The reason that these seeds have not been widely utilized is because squash and zucchini are subject to infection by multiple viruses, not just the three these plants have been engineered to resist. What’s more, they are likely to be infected by multiple viruses at once. It is not worth the extra expense for most farmers to use these seeds and have their crop be infected by other viruses not covered so that they will have to use the same conventional virus control measures. In that case, the extra money spent on the engineered seeds is wasted. 1Cornell Cooperative Extension. “Genetically Engineered Foods, Plant Virus Resistance.” Genetically Engineered Organisms Public Issues Education (GEO-PIE) Project, #8 in a Series. Cornell Cooperative Extension. 2002. Ithaca, NY. https://scholarworks.indianapolis.iu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/3aaef335-5992-46d3-932e-96248e706ff4/content
GMO Salmon
Some GMO salmon are farmed by AquaBounty Technologies, In Indiana. They were engineered to have a faster growth rate. They are sold under the brand name AquAdvantage™. These salmon contain an rDNA created by combining genetic material from different sources. This construct is composed of the growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon under the control of a promoter (a sequence of DNA that turns on the expression of a gene) from another type of fish called an ocean pout. These fish are approved for sell and consumption in the U.S., Canada, and Brazil. Although considered safe for consumption by the FDA, these GE salmon are the subject of much controversy.
GMO Canola
You should pretty much assume any canola oil in the United States to be produced from GMO canola (rapeseed). Around 95% of the canola (rapeseed) grown in the United States is genetically engineered. The adoption rate is similar in Canada. The plants are engineered to be herbicide resistant.
GMO Soybean
Also assume that any soybeans produced in the United States are GMO. Over 90% of soybeans grown in America are bioengineered. Unless a soybean containing product specifically says the soybeans are non-GMO, they almost certainly are genetically engineered.
GMO Sugar beets
Unless otherwise specified, assume that all sugar beets produced in the US are GMO. Around 95-98% of sugar beets in North America are genetically modified and most refined sugar, 55 to 60%, comes from sugar beets. The most common GE trait is herbicide resistance.
