Bananas are genetically modified. Bananas. What foods should be organic

Not every customer knows how to choose the right bananas, despite the fact that this is a popular fruit that many people buy quite often, so we will try to figure out which bananas are better to choose when buying in a store, what to look for when buying in order to buy ripe and tasty fruit.

Greenish unripe bananas contain more sodium, which is useful for maintaining the water-salt balance in the human body, and ripe bananas have more potassium and other vitamins, while they have a higher calorie content (than green ones).

How to choose good tasty bananas

Color. A ripe banana has a uniform yellow color (saturated, not pale).
The presence of spots. Bananas with spots on the skin are not harmful, they are just an indicator of the ripeness of the banana. When choosing bananas with spots, do not forget that they will not lie at home for a long time and it is better to eat them right away.
Smell. A ripe good banana will have a pleasant delicious smell, you just want to eat it right away. If you have visited countries where bananas are grown at least once and tasted them and remembered the smell, then you will definitely never forget it, in our stores, unfortunately, you will hardly find such fruits.
Skin integrity. When choosing a banana, we carefully examine the peel for damage, since if it is burst, or the stem (tail) is torn off, then it is better not to buy such a banana.
The size. Among ordinary bananas on store shelves, fruits with a length of 20 cm or more are considered more expensive and of high quality (bananas of extra class, and in short they already go to the 1st and 2nd classes). But it is worth noting that the taste of a banana does not always depend on its size.
The form More delicious bananas are more rounded (not ribbed).
To the touch good bananas are firm and resilient (if we talk about the peel), just like green ones. Overripe bananas are softer to the touch, have a wrinkled peel and a dried stalk.
Location. An interesting fact is that tastier bananas are located closer to the middle of the bunch, so if your goal is to buy only 1-2 bananas, then it is better to opt for the "center".
pulp a ripe banana should not be friable (unless it is overripe), while it is a uniform cream color.

An interesting fact about bananas: most of the imported bananas in the countries of the former CIS are feed bananas, as they are easier to deliver and store, and they are also cheaper. Baby bananas are tastier and more expensive (small in size, more fragrant and tasty, have a thinner peel).

How to choose bananas on the label without chemicals and GMOs

The introduction of foreign genes into food products began as early as the discovery of DNA in 1944. However, this phenomenon reached industrial scale only at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, having managed to acquire supporters and opponents during this time.

The role of genetically modified products in modern society is great, they occupy a special place in the agricultural industry. So called transgenic plants partially solved the problem that humanity faced in the 70s: soil pollution with pesticides and chemicals on a colossal scale.

Some transgenic plants contain genes that protect them from diseases or pests, which saves the earth. At the same time, it was hoped that increasing the yield due to special genes would help overcome hunger throughout the world, but, unfortunately, the expectations did not materialize.

Expectations regarding the success of this invention did not materialize, scientists are still struggling with the question of how useful and harmful its use is. What is a GMO and how to distinguish it from a natural product?

Without GMO

Without GMOs - such a motto was chosen by Austria, Greece, Poland, Switzerland and Japan, declaring themselves completely free from genetically modified products. A large number of countries are free from them partially - by regions, many are just coming to this.

So, no one in the world has proven the direct harm of transgenic plants to the human body. However, the unconditional harmlessness has not been confirmed. There are two obvious shortcomings GMO. No, this is not cancer, and even less the risk of mutations.

Transgenic organisms are highly unpredictable. The simplest example: they germinate quickly and in any conditions. You just bought tomatoes, and they are already sprouted, and it's not that they are overcooked.

They cause allergies. Let's say you've purchased a vegetable with peanut genes that you're allergic to. You can find out about this only by marking, but what if the manufacturer is caught unscrupulous?

If you are only attracted natural food, there are several ways to distinguish it from transgenic.

1. As we have said, marking. As a rule, manufacturers who produce natural products, labeled as "100% Natural" or "GMO Free". If they contain any modifications, they make up no more than one percent.

2. Beautiful, smooth, shiny, “ideal” vegetables in shape and color should arouse suspicion in you, and if they are all the same in size, there was some intervention. Look for traces of worm bugs. As a rule, traces of insects indicate the naturalness of the product.

3. Pitted. It is hard to imagine that nature has come up with something so useless in terms of productivity. Pitted watermelons are a prime example of this. There are also the most harmless characteristics. For example, apples that do not darken.

4. The code can say a lot about the product. For example, bananas with the code 4011 or 94011 are naturally grown. At the same time, US products with a five-digit code that starts with 8 are transgenic.

It will be useful to know that three-quarters of all soybeans in the world are GMOs, as well as a third of corn and one-fifth of rapeseed. By the way, the petunia gene has been introduced into peanuts. Please note that insects bypass these nuts.

It should also be distinguished selection from genetic engineering: watermelons, eggplants, bananas, carrots, peaches in the form in which we know them were bred artificially, but do not pose even an illusory threat.

Benefit or harm, with GMO or without, but you always need to know what is on your plate.

Bananas are widely considered to be a very healthy addition to the daily diet. By and large, the way it is - these fruits have an impressive set of vitamins and minerals that have a positive effect on the human body. But what almost no one knows: modern bananas are the fruit of the work of entire generations of genetic engineers. Here's how the banana evolved from a natural fruit to a GMO-infused food.

This is Gros Michel - in the US the variety is called "Big Mike". Bananas remained an exotic treat until the end of 1800, when the United Fruit Company literally flooded the United States markets with this product.

Gros Michel was a creamy-sweet, portable product. Such bananas could be thrown green into the hold of the ship, and already ripened at the destination.

The first supply of bananas from the UFC almost completely went to the port workers - the company still did not know how to calculate the ripening time correctly.

The same UFC cleared hundreds of square kilometers of forest to organize their banana plantations. This led to terrible consequences: the local population died at work, the local flora and fauna died due to ecosystem disturbance.

And even these measures did not help the company. The variety "Big Mike" turned out to be very susceptible to the so-called "Panama disease" - the damage to the UFC amounted to an incredible $ 18.2 billion at that time.

A new player entered the market immediately. Standard Fruit introduced a new banana variety, the Cavendish, to consumers. This fruit could resist the infection, but was less tasty and had a thin skin, which created certain difficulties during transportation.

Initially, Cavendish bananas were grown in special greenhouses on the shores of England. In 1950, this breeding species completely ousted Gros Michel from the US markets.

Cavendish bananas were sterile. So, the only way to grow them is biological development. Which, as you know, is not the safest thing in the world.

The experiments of breeders led to the evolution of "Panama disease". It was very difficult to fight it, the strains penetrated even to distant Taiwanese plantations. A small amount of contaminated soil was enough to infect a huge area.

Biologists are still trying to find a rational method to pacify the dangerous strain. At the moment, most of the bananas around the world are undergoing genetic modification - which newspapers and manufacturers are in no hurry to trumpet.

Some scientists are trying to find another way. Laboratory experiments have shown that it is possible to try to restore already extinct banana varieties that may be resistant to existing diseases. Unfortunately, the results of the work of breeders will have to wait a long time. In the meantime, we will all have to be content with what genetic engineers offer. Enjoy your meal!

The country violates the standard according to which every banana must be marked with information about whether the product is natural or genetically modified. We are talking about a product that is quite affordable and the implementation of which in the Georgian market reaches a fairly high level. The most dangerous thing is that among the consumers of bananas there are many children who eat them almost every day.

A few days ago, the agency, citing one of the foreign media, published information that when buying a banana, you should pay attention to the sticker glued to it - if it contains a four-digit code that starts with the numbers 3 or 4, then this means that in The product contains a lot of pesticides. If the sticker has a 5-digit code that starts with the number 9, then the product is obtained only naturally, without any chemical additives - today such products are called "organic". The site became interested in how this standard is observed in the Georgian market, and contacted the importers of bananas - only the Little Sun company agreed to comment.

The company said that bananas imported to Georgia are accompanied by international certificates, in addition, they undergo a phytosanitary check. However, according to them, on the stickers that are attached to each banana, only the name of the manufacturing company is indicated, and there are no numbers.

“Information about whether the product is natural or genetically modified, or grown with the help of chemistry, is contained only on the box in which the bananas are packaged. But buyers can't get this information. By the way, the same problem exists not only in the case of bananas, but also in other fruits - for example, imported citrus fruits and apples. If we do not receive a complaint about a specific product, then we have no way to check everything individually, ”the company said. Little Sun said that doing this kind of on-site inspection would create big problems for the business.

“We had a case when we exported bananas to Azerbaijan, and so we were required to conduct an examination for certain specific products and we had to do it. In Georgia, it is impossible to conduct a study of each individual banana. It turns out that you need to put a sticker on each individual banana,” the company says.

The study showed that, despite the different quality of bananas, their prices practically do not differ, therefore, it is impossible to determine the quality of a product by its price, as is usually the case. Moreover, for example, in the US, an organic banana is 40-60% more expensive than a genetically modified or grown with the active use of pesticides. Based on all this, we can conclude that in Georgia it is almost impossible to determine the quality of bananas, and from this point of view, consumers are absolutely not protected. (UNN / Food industry of Ukraine and the world)

Our groups:

Would you eat them, or would you even recognize these foods in their original form? Probably not. Genetically modified foods are a source of ongoing discussion today. Some want nothing to do with modern GMOs, while for others it's everything. However, many people do not realize that a large number of modern fruits and vegetables could not exist without careful selection. In fact, the original versions of these popular plants may be completely unrecognizable to the modern public.

10. Carrot

It is known that the earliest cultivated carrots were first grown in the 10th century in Asia Minor and Persia. Before the vegetable was domesticated, wild carrots were distributed throughout the world. In Europe, seeds have been found that are 5,000 years old.
The first carrots were small and white. It was also more "branched", resembling the root of a tree. Most likely, ancient civilizations used it as a medicinal plant.

It is believed that the transformation of the carrot into its orange, sweet, bitter-free offspring so popular today took many centuries to cultivate. Today's orange carrots are known as "Carotene" or "Western Carrots", while their cousins known as "Asian" or "Eastern Carrots" can be purple and even yellow.

9. Eggplant

Photo: amishlandseeds.com

No one will confuse a big, purple, shiny eggplant with anything else. However, in fact, eggplant has many varieties. For the first time, the vegetable was cultivated on the territory of modern India and Burma. Today, it is widely grown in an area that stretches from northeast India and Burma to northern Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and southwest China.

It is believed that the English name "eggplant" (egg-like plant) originated during the British occupation of India, where these plants were white and egg-shaped. In chronicles dating back to 300 BC. the plant is variously described as blue fruit, royal melon, and a plant with thorns.

Over the centuries, the plant has migrated throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America. The eggplant, in its various forms, is often featured in the early art and literature of these regions.

8. Bananas

Photo: Warut Roonguthai

The fleshy yellow fruits found in many children's lunch boxes were first cultivated in Papua New Guinea approximately 7,000 to 10,000 years ago. The banana is another edible plant that has several varieties, most of which are native to Asia today. The long yellow fruit known as the Cavendish is the result of centuries of careful selection by conscientious farmers. It comes from two types of wild bananas: Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The first has a not very tasty pulp to eat raw, and the second is a short thick fruit with many hard pea-sized seeds.

Thousands of years ago, banana cultivators discovered that crossing the two plants sometimes resulted in a sweet, yellow, seedless fruit that was also rich in nutrients. Because this new one does not contain seeds, bananas can be grown through human asexual reproduction (otherwise known as cloning). This form of breeding makes the Cavendish much more susceptible to disease than its hardy ancestors. Since the plants are genetically identical, a deadly banana epidemic can quickly and easily wipe out an entire crop. For this reason, cultivators are forced to be careful with the amount of bananas they grow, lest the world experience a banana apocalypse.

7. Tomatoes

Photo: Smithsonian Magazine

"Wild Tiny Pimp" may sound like an unfortunate street name, but it's actually the name of a type of tomato. In fact, this is the type of tomato from which all other types have come. Plant growers call it Solanum pimpinellifolium, or simply "procurer". Today, these pea-sized tomatoes grow in northern Peru and southern Ecuador, hanging from dry thin branches.

South Americans were the first to cultivate them even before Columbus discovered America. These tomatoes then spread throughout Europe and eventually returned to North America. Today, a wide variety of all cultivated tomatoes descend from a tiny pimp and, interestingly, there are only five percent genetic differences between them. Crossbreeding of modern species with earlier wild species, including the pimp, results in plants that are more hardy and less susceptible to disease.

6. Watermelon

Photo: hyperallergic.com

There are many theories as to where the watermelon first appeared. Historians agree only that at first it grew somewhere in Africa, then spread in the Mediterranean region, and then appeared in Europe. Harry Paris, a horticulturist at the Agricultural Research Organization in Israel, concluded that the earliest ancestor of the watermelon was first cultivated in Egypt about 4,000 years ago.

This ancient fruit was tough, bitter and pale green in color - not at all like today's sweet, fleshy. Why then did the ancient Egyptians take the time and energy to grow something like this? Paris believes that they did this because watermelons are rich in water. During the dry season, watermelons were well stored and the Egyptians could grind them into a soft pulp and extract the water they contained. He also believes that it was the Egyptians who started the selective breeding process that eventually led to the watermelon we know today.

5. Corn

Photo: learn.genetics.utah.edu

It is difficult to imagine a world without this most necessary culture. Corn was one of the first edible plants cultivated during the dawn of agriculture about 10,000 years ago in the area that is present-day Mexico. Once upon a time, corn cobs were very small, but thanks to artificial selection, they gradually increased in size.

If we go back even further, we find that the ancient ancestor of corn is a wild grass called teosinte. It bears little resemblance to corn, but both plants produce kernels. However, at the genetic level, these two plants are very similar.
Geneticist George Beadle found in his experiments that the most noticeable differences between the two plants are due to only five chromosomes. Over time, teosinte underwent small genetic changes that eventually led to the emergence of corn.

4. Peaches

Photo: Live Science

Peach boasts quite a long history. Fossilized peach pits dating back 2.5 million years have been discovered in China. These peaches were much smaller than today's ones. They looked more like small cherries and had little pulp.
It took about 3,000 years for the peach to reach its modern form. Not surprisingly, peaches play an important role in Chinese culture. They symbolize long life and can be found in markets throughout the country.

3. Avocado

Photo: Smithsonian Magazine

The fleshy fruit responsible for the great taste of guacamole was used exclusively as food by prehistoric giant mammals 65.5 million years ago. In fact, these animals were the only mode of transport for the avocado, as they ate the entire fruit and later left the seeds elsewhere.

The original avocado had a larger pit (if you can imagine) and much less pulp than today's Hass avocados. Once upon a time, after large mammals died out, people began to cultivate this fruit so that over time it would become more fleshy and attractive.

2. Papaya

Although papaya is eaten all over the world today, it originally grew in the tropical climate of Latin America. Modern papaya comes from wild papaya and they are very different. Wild papaya is round and about the size of a plum.

Some types of wild papaya even look like a cocoa pod. The ancient Maya were the first to cultivate papaya around 4,000 years ago. Growing fruit is a complex process because the grower doesn't know what seed the plant will grow from until it starts growing.

Photo: insidescience.org

The English name "pumkin" (pumpkin) comes from the Greek word "pepon", which means "big melon". Over time, this word was transformed into what we now know. It is believed that the pumpkin and zucchini come from America. The earliest gourds were the size of a softball, about the size of a grapefruit, and were bitter and poisonous when raw. Only large prehistoric mammals could eat them, so these creatures were responsible for spreading the seeds to other territories. When these mammals died out, the pumpkin could have perished with them if man had not begun to cultivate it.

People continued to find different ways to use the gourd, extracting the pulp from it and turning it into containers for water, for example. Eventually, they began to eat gourds and saved the seeds of the tastier vegetables for later planting. This fact makes us appreciate the specific pumpkin latte more.