Review: Bringing purple tomatoes to market

This interesting article by Cathie Martin and Eugenio Butelli describes the process through which purple, anthocyanin-accumulating tomatoes were brought to the US market, from idea to business plan to regulatory status review and finally direct-to-consumer sales. Although these tomatoes have demonstrated health benefits, the developers had difficulty finding partners who wanted to help commercialize them, so they themselves worked through the long process by first forming a company called Norfolk Plant Sciences (NPS). The article describes the science behind elevated accumulation of anthocyanin, caused by increased expression of two key transcription factors in the metabolic pathway, as well as the characterization of the nutritional qualities of the tomatoes. The remainder of the article is particularly interesting and useful to plant scientists, as it lays out the steps that the authors undertook to get regulatory approval from the USDA/APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service). It’s not often we get a first-hand perspective into how a genetically-engineered food can be made available to consumers, so this story will be particularly useful to other small-scale entrepreneurs. (Summary by Mary Williams @plantteaching.bsky.social @PlantTeaching) ACS Food Sci. Technol.  10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00692