
Cosmic Crisp – The apple from outer space

Fundamentally, the nutritional philosophy between Germany and the United States is fundamentally different. While food in this country traditionally does not have a long shelf life, animals are stuffed with antibiotics and genetically modified plants are frowned upon or banned, overseas the situation is often the other way around.
Now a new apple is coming onto the market that is said to have a gigantic lifespan of one year.
Europe has adopted many food trends from the USA. Be it the light product wave, the low-fat trend or protein overdose, the addition of excessive preservatives to foods tends to put off the typical German food customer, which is why many products currently use the bogus label “free of preservatives”. This is a bogus term because many products are preserved in a “natural” way.
Fruit juices are heated briefly to increase their shelf life; this process is called pasteurization. For fruit, shelf life can be achieved either through cultivation, storage or chemical additives. The newly developed apple variety Cosmic Crisp from the USA takes this trend to the extreme.
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The apple should last up to a year, hardly oxidize when cut and still retain its sweet taste. According to the company that brings the apple onto the market, no genetic engineering was used, but pure breeding techniques. In addition to the high promises, $10 million was invested in the advertising budget, triggering huge hype.
What an apple!?
Almost half a million cases will be delivered in the first week of official sales, with exports expected to increase to 2.1 million cases in 2020. The only negative thing about this seemingly perfect apple is the price; at the equivalent of 9 euros per kilo, it is significantly more expensive than normal varieties.
However, it will only become clear over the next year whether the apple really has the shelf life or whether the promises turn out to be a pure marketing gimmick.
However, such products provide an excellent starting point to examine negative and positive aspects of the durability of such products.
The first negative thing that catches the eye is the freshness and naturalness of such an apple. The Financial Times rightly criticized that in times when there is a return to fresh products from regional areas, such an over-bred apple seems downright absurd.
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There is also the question of to what extent the apple needs to be stored specifically in order to maintain its optimal shelf life. Basically, fruit is characterized above all by its variety in taste, color and appearance. If apples are bred for shelf life, their other characteristics risk disappearing. In the last few decades, hundreds of apple varieties have disappeared to make way for the current dominant apple varieties (Granny Smith, Pink Lady, etc.).
Cosmic
A positive aspect of the development of the Cosmic Crisp is an expected reduction in waste. Studies consistently say that there would be enough food in the world if it were distributed sensibly and not thrown away unnecessarily.
Some countries are already combating this with laws that prohibit supermarkets from throwing away excess food and instead require them to donate it to charities.
If the shelf life of fruit and vegetables were generally increased, this could lead to less waste and more resource-efficient handling of food. Climate change presents fruit and vegetable farmers in particular with more sustainable challenges, as extreme dry periods cause repeated crop failures.
If fruits and vegetables are naturally made to last longer or to be more robust against harsh weather conditions, this could optimize harvest yields and prevent food shortages in affected regions. In addition, delivery to crisis areas would be possible for longer if food, especially fruit, had a longer shelf life.
Apple for everyone?
In summary, the skepticism towards the Cosmic Crisp is correspondingly high, as great promises have been made about the apple and a product with such a long lifespan usually shows deficiencies in other areas, such as taste or health.
Nevertheless, the long shelf life of fruits and vegetables could be a trend for future challenges in climate change.
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Author Alexander Herberstein, article image by Valentina Razumova / Schutterstock.com
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication
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The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual articles (not fact checks) were created using machine help and
were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )
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