There’s nothing worse than biting into a red, shiny, crunchy-looking apple, only to find that your mouth is filled with soft, sloppy mush. But scientists in Australia may have brought an end to rotten apples.
Researchers working for the government of the state of Queensland have developed a new variety of apple that, they say, can stay fresh for months. The new RS103-130 may not have a very catchy name but it stays crispy for 14 days if kept in a fruit bowl, and up to four months if kept in the fridge. It could be on supermarket shelves by next year.
The scientists have called their creation “the world’s best apple”, thanks to its red colour, sweet taste, long-lasting crunchiness and ability to resist a disease known as apple scab.
The team produced it using a gene from a variety of apple that is resistant to apple scab, a fungal disease.
Apple-growers in Britain spend up to £20 million a year spraying their crops with fungicides, so if the RS103-130 catches on it could save a lot of money (and a lot of thrown-away rotten apples).
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Who knows what they’ll come up with next? Give it ten years and we will probably have a banana that never goes brown and a satsuma that peels itself.
Additional reporting: Emma Cottam
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