apples & taters not turning brown?

[old fashioned]

Am I slow or has anyone else noticed this. I've had to buy apples & taters from the store lately & when they've been cut or peeled & left out...they don't turn brown.
In fact, DH had peeled one too many potatoes for supper one night & left it on the counter. When I got home from work later that night I realized it hadn't turned yet & wondered about it. I left it there till morning expecting the worst, BUT NO!! It was still as white as when it was first peeled. This just kinda freaked me out a bit.

Anyone have any ideas of what 'they' are doing to our food NOW?
Spraying, GMO or??????

 

[abifae]

i haven't had any apples out long enough to tell... but that's creepy.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Y'know, I DID wonder about that.

I peeled a few potatoes I couldn't use and left them, also expecting the worst. I thought at best I cold shred them up and use them to thicken a stew. Put them in the fridge overnight and in the am, still white. I've never stored peeled taters before but I expected them to turn brown? This is a brand that normally grows eyes like crazy too. I haven't had them long enough for that yet. But I ended up not using the potatoes for several days now and -- they are STILL white???

 

[old fashioned]

I checked the bag over for any clues (like the radura symbol or something), but there's nothing to indicate anything different.

All is does say is....."U.S. NO.1, produce (NOT product) of USA, Golden Russet potatoes, Packed for Tri-Cities Produce Inc, Pasco, Wa 99301"
on the back is a Nutrition Facts claim and a barcode for price scanning.


It doesn't even say where they're grown or packed....just WHO they're packed for.


ETA: As for the apples, awhile back the kids had some for a snack & didn't finish it all. A few hours later I found their leftovers still looking as fresh as ever. eeeewww

 

[patandchickens]

Remember there's a lot of variation between varieties in how fast/much they brown. My impression is that modern 'eating apple' varieties have had significant selection processes for NOT browning much nor fast. (Less sure about potatoes -- there is clearly variation but not sure how it maps onto currently-widespread cultivars)

So it may be perfectly innocent.

Pat

 

[old fashioned]

Pat, you may be right about that. It's just that I've never seen it happen before & seems so weird & unnatural.

 

[journey11]

I've noticed that too. I don't know what they'd have to do to a whole apple to prevent it from browning, although I'm sure they treat the pre-sliced (how lazy do you have to be?) snack apples they have over in the salad aisle, but that would only require something as harmless as citric acid. Like Pat said, it may be bred into them. All commercial produce favors strains bred for longevity in storage/transport, so that wouldn't surprise me.

 

[patandchickens]

I know that Galas, for instance, which are very popular in supermarkets nowadays but never used to be, and those Honeycrisp things which are plain ol' brand-new, both brown pretty slowly, purely because they naturally contain less of the enzymes that cause the browning. Whereas Cortlands and especially Macouns, for instance, which are not as common anymore, brown *real* fast.

Pat

 

[Woodland Woman]

It would be interesting to know if the potato was gmo. Now as far as the apples, I have noticed some apples do brown more quickly than others so I am not surprised about that.

 

[patandchickens]

The biological basis of browning in cut potatoes is pretty much the same as in apples -- enzymes from the damaged cells -- so just as there are cultivar differences among apples I'd expect them among potatoes too.

Indeed that's been my impression but in contrast to apples I have not usually paid a whole lot of attention TO what potato cultivar I'm cooking with so I can't say for sure.

Google "potato browning varieties" and you will find links to a whole bunch of (paid access only) journal articles whose publicly-available summaries do state that there's considerable variation among potato varieties in this trait.

I would be shocked if they weren't selecting for slow browning, in supermarket type varieties, though, for the same reason as in apples -- people these days are easily-wigged-out weenies

Honestly, I seriously seriously think it is likely to be explained by normal non-GMO-type plant breeding processes, not by Frankenstein gene splicing or 'better living through chemistry' treatments.

Pat