Calyxt, a Minnesota-based company focusing on developing healthy food products to benefit both consumers and farmers, announced Tuesday that it has completed the first field trials in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan of its cold-storable potato.
A significant amount of potatoes harvested each fall are cold-stored to ensure a continuous supply throughout the year. During cold storage, reducing sugars can accumulate in the potatoes. When cooked at temperatures above 250 degrees, the reducing sugars interact with free amino acids to form acrylamide. The National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer lists acrylamide as a “probable” human carcinogen.
Calyxt scientists have inactivated the enzyme responsible for the degradation of sugars in the tuber, thus reducing both the sweetening of cold-stored potatoes and the creation of acrylamide during frying.
Calyxt has previously validated the effectiveness of its cold-storable potatoes in greenhouses. However, the harvest of the multi-location field trials is an important step for demonstrating the cold-storable trait from field-grown material. In addition to increasing the amount of material to conduct commercial cold storage assays, certified seed production is under way to provide for a commercial launch.
“We are very pleased by the results of our field trials, which continue to demonstrate Calyxt is an innovated player in the potato industry,” says Calyxt chief scientific officer Dan Voytas. “Cold-storable, non-transgenic potatoes provide a continuous, high-quality supply of potatoes and increase the usable yield for the french fry, potato chip and fresh market industries.”
Source: Business Wire