The First Crispr-Edited Salad Is Here

Pairwise’s goal is to make already healthy foods more convenient and enjoyable. Beyond mustard greens, the company is also trying to improve fruits. It’s using Crispr to develop seedless blackberries and pitless cherries. 

One benefit of Crispr is that it can achieve new plant varieties in a fraction of the time it takes to produce a new one through traditional breeding. 

The mustard greens aren’t the first Crispr food to be launched commercially. In 2021, a Tokyo firm introduced a Crispr-edited tomato in Japan that contains high amounts of y-aminobutyric acid, or GABA. 

However, gene-edited foods could still face obstacles with public acceptance, says Christopher Cummings, a senior research fellow at North Carolina State University and Iowa State University.

“People want to know how their food is made. They don’t want to feel duped,” Cummings says. 

Cumming said that, If gene-edited foods are really going to take off, they need to provide a clear and direct benefit to people that helps them financially or nutritionally.”