Flavr Savr tomato

[Jonathan_E]

Tomatovillians,

The first genetically engineered fruit or vegetable to be sold commercially was a tomato called the Flavr Savr and marketed under the brand 'Macgregors'. It was sold mainly in California and the Midwest in the mid-1990's. It was genetically engineered to turn off a gene that produces polygalacturonase, an enzyme that makes a tomato soften as it ripens and eventually rot.

Almost all fresh-market tomatoes in the US and Canada are picked when they are "mature green" and made to turn red (but not otherwise ripen) by exposure to ethylene, so that they are still hard when they are shipped. Of course this has a detrimental effect on flavor. The purpose of turning off the polygalacturonase gene was to allow the tomato to ripen on the vine and still be firm enough to be shipped long distances, and to rot less quickly than most ripe tomatoes.

The Flavr Savr sold well, but for various reasons, the company that was behind it, Calgene, did not do well and was sold to Monsanto. Monsanto wanted the company for other genetically modified crops it had developed and was not interested in the tomato. Neither that tomato nor any other genetically modified tomato has been sold in the US since 1997.

My question is this: Did anyone here taste the Flavr Savr (Macgregors) tomato when it was on the market? Was it in fact better than the usual supermarket tomato? I have read in a couple of places that it was not, or not significantly, but I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has first-hand experience.

Thanks,

Jonathan

[obispo45]

Sorry...no first hand experience here. But as a long time former resident, and now relegated to being a frequent visitor of the Bay State thought that I'd say hey!

I'm a big patron of the local, public library(not that it has done me any good...LOL). Unfortunately I cannot recall at this time, the name of the two works(authors too) I've read in the last year or so in which the authors just savaged the Flavr Savr tomato, as well as pretty much all it stood for....namely the taste, which if I recall, according to them and I summarize was a step below spray painted dull reddish slightly waterlogged cardboard under obtrusive lighting with no other curious shoppers/buyers anywhere in sight. I know I wrote down the authors' names in one of my disorganized notebooks. Wow...that helps you a bunch doesn't it?? Take it easy and see ya around!!

[carolyn137]

My question is this: Did anyone here taste the Flavr Savr (Macgregors) tomato when it was on the market? Was it in fact better than the usual supermarket tomato? I have read in a couple of places that it was not, or not significantly, but I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has first-hand experience.

*****

Yes, I tasted it.

It wasn't marketed in the Albany, NY area but was in the western part of the state at a chain called Wegmans. Someone sent me several fruits.

Going back to Howdy Doody, I'd call it a summerspring winterfall tomato in that it was so hard that I'm sure the shelf life could have been about a year.

The taste was essentially lousy and there were many shipped in tomatoes that tasted better if you want to compare it to those store tomatoes.

I had brought three of the fruits to work for others to try and the consensus was the same as my opinion of it.

[Rena]

wow. I was not aware. I am glad that their focus is not on GM tomatoes, but work persists somewhere I am sure. Not something that personally makes me happy.
Good info in your post Jonathan E.

[Raymondo]

I have only read about it too. Carol Deppe, in her book Breed Your Own Vegetables described the taste as reminiscent of gasoline!
Glad to hear of someone's personal experience with it.

[Jonathan_E]

Obispo,

Hey right back. I have a book about the Flavr Savr called First Fruit, by Belinda Martineau, who was a research scientist at Calgene at the time, in which she describes a number of taste tests of the Flavr Savr when it first came out. The result were "less than glowing", as she says. They were not, however, strongly negative. Alice Waters of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley said they were "not bad" although she also said she would not serve genetically modified tomatoes in her restaurant.

These were the earliest examples of tomatoes with the Flavr Savr gene, and the poor showing was at least in part a result of the fact that the tomatoes the company chose to modify were not very good tomatoes in the first place. In subsequent years, Calgene used better-tasting tomatoes to begin with, and later tasters reported better results. For example, in a blind tasting of several tomatoes by chefs and restaurant owners in May of 1995 it was the unanimous winner, with one taster saying that it had “great color, great smell….you can taste the dirt.” Drew Nieroporent, who owned several restaurants in New York at the time, said when it was revealed that the winner was the Flavr Savr, “No! No way, I can’t believe it.” He expected the Flavr Savr to be like the “product of a scientific experiment…wan, waxy and uniform in shape.’ It was, on the contrary, “big, beefy, dark red, and sweet, the closest he could imagine to the summer Jersey tomato.”

Another book I've read recently that deals with this subject is Pandora's Picnic Basket, by Alan McHughen. He says that he visited Calgene prior to commercial release of the Flavr Savr, was given a few and snuck them through Canadian customs. He didn't like them at all, and neither apparently did his graduate students at the University of Saskatchewan. On the other hand, I have to discount his opinion because of, among other things, the gratuitous anti-American slur he includes in the paragraph in which he reports this. He says, "American consumers like things big, and good looking [which the Flavr Savr's he had apparently were]. Consumers in the UK and, to a lesser extent, Canada, prefer tomatoes with more taste and texture; size and shape are of less import." He also says that they didn't do well in the market, although Martineau's book emphatically says otherwise. I would guess she would know better than he.

Carolyn, thanks very much for the first-hand report. Do you remember when you tasted this tomato? I wonder if you got an early or late version.

Rena, thanks for the kind words. It’s a very interesting story, and important in the more general story of genetically modified foods.

Best,

Jonathan

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Jonathan_E

In subsequent years, Calgene used better-tasting tomatoes to begin with, and later tasters reported better results. For example, in a blind tasting of several tomatoes by chefs and restaurant owners in May of 1995 it was the unanimous winner, with one taster saying that it had “great color, great smell….you can taste the dirt.” Drew Nieroporent, who owned several restaurants in New York at the time, said when it was revealed that the winner was the Flavr Savr, “No! No way, I can’t believe it.” He expected the Flavr Savr to be like the “product of a scientific experiment…wan, waxy and uniform in shape.’ It was, on the contrary, “big, beefy, dark red, and sweet, the closest he could imagine to the summer Jersey tomato.”

It depends what other tomatoes were in the tasting. I'm going to guess it was Early Girl, Celebrity, and a half dozen numbered commercial varieties. But then I'm kinda jaded.

[Jonathan_E]

Feldon,

In her book, Martineau just says it was "five other tomato varieties, including a couple of beefsteak tomatoes and a Florida hot-house grown fruit." She cites an article in the Sacramento Bee, which does not seem to have archives online, so I can't check it. But you're probably right.

Still, the important thing to notice, in my mind, is that the underlying taste of the original tomato before genetic modification probably had more to do with the eventual taste than did the modification itself. Also, no doubt, growing conditions and all the other things of which we are aware. It did apparently do well in the marketplace in spite of being labeled as genetically modified and sold at a higher price than conventional tomatoes.

Martineau's conclusion is, "And while the issue of whether the Flavr Savr gene is truly capable of saving tomato flavor remains debatable, anecdotal evidence from taste tests conducted over time indicated that the taste of MacGregor's tomatoes did improve as the Flavr Savr gene was bred into better-tasting tomato varieties."

Best,

jonathan