Del Monte has gotten the FDA’s permission to sell a genetically engineered pineapple whose purpose seems to be pleasing consumers who like the taste just fine, but can’t get over the ridiculous yellow color. The Rosé, as it’s of course known, is a patented version of the tropical fruit made randomly pink by adding lycopene, the bright red pigment found in tomatoes and watermelons. Del Monte says the flesh becomes sweeter in the process, and plans to label it “extra sweet pink flesh pineapple” so that nobody expecting the normal golden kind cuts into one and thinks it’s diseased.
The company’s been quietly developing this thing since 2005, but only got FDA approval yesterday. The strangest part is Del Monte has kept what the mysterious flesh looks like under wraps; a couple purported online photos are just Photoshopped images of normal pineapples. Obviously the FDA got a good peek, though, and says that after thorough study, it couldn’t find any “unresolved safety or regulatory questions about the pineapple.” (All further judgments about the fruit have been left to consumers.) Del Monte plans to grow them exclusively far, far away down in Costa Rica.
