AP: New potato holds promise

New potato holds promise

Russet Ranger spud may be sold to fast food chains

AP Photo/J.R.Simplot Company

Simplot Plant Sciences biologists Craig Richael, left, and Hua Waa, work at their company’s lab last week in Boise, Idaho. In the spud capital of the world, teams of scientists are splicing potato genes, working daily to perfect Idaho’s top cash crop with modern biotechnology.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — In the potato capital of the world, spud honchos made sizzling rich on America’s french fry affair fill downtown offices.

In the distance, potato fields sprawl east and west and there are ample cafes to carbo-load on spuds served baked, stuffed, fried and, somewhat miraculously, frozen into ice cream. And inside tucked-away laboratories in the town that hash browns built, teams of scientists are splicing potato genes, working daily to perfect Idaho’s top cash crop with modern biotechnology.

At J.R. Simplot Co., the eponymous potato company founded by Idaho’s richest man, biologists have used gene technology to design a spud that’s tastier and resistant to unsightly bruises and sprouts. What’s more, the potato’s revamped gene structure rebuffs acrylamides, potentially dangerous chemicals that that studies suggest bond with sugars in fried potatoes.

Company officials stress that the new potato, a genetically modified Russet Ranger, is in a preliminary research stage.

It will be five to 10 years before Simplot markets a genetically enhanced potato that could supplant unmodified Russet Burbanks, the variety sold by the billion to fast-food restaurants across the world. Still, the recent announcement of the new Russet Ranger in an industry scientific journal underscores the potential of biotechnology to mute the adverse health affects of fried snacks, while stoking the ethical debate surrounding these so-called ‘‘Frankenfoods.’’

Processed foods with genetically altered materials dot the aisles of most U.S. supermarkets, the reconfigured gene structure invisible to the consumer because the government does not require labels like most countries in Europe.

However, whole foods in supermarket produce sections are almost never genetically engineered.

Only a few brands of bioengineered Hawaiian papayas and a tiny amount of sweet corn ears and squash plants are on the market, said Gregory Jaffe, biotechnology project director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C.

All potatoes on the market, however, retain their original genetic structure; there currently are no genetically modified potatoes in American stores, said Caius Rommens, Simplot’s lead biologist on the gene-silencing project.

‘‘It’s five years down the road and only if consumers really want it,’’ Rommens said. ‘‘But this could be the first. It’s a breakthrough — the first time genetic modification ever enhanced flavor.’’

There are more than 50,000 genes in a potato. The scientists at Simplot removed two of those genes and introduced replicas that silence some of their negative effects, Rommens said.

The altered potato could contain 7 percent more healthy starch, while offering a stronger flavor.

The new potato also stores longer before its starches begin to degrade. As starch degrades, sugars build in the potato. Those sugars form acrylamides when cooked under the intense heat of a fry oven or stove, international studies first reported a few years ago.

Studies have linked acrylamide, a chemical agent once used to treat sewage, to cancer in animals, according to the World Health Organization.

In California, McDonald’s and Burger King have been sued for not providing warning labels informing customers that french fries could cause cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not ruled yet on any acrylamide risk and the battle over warning labels is still bottled up in court.