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Take Out with Bob Weeks

Bob Weeks began his publishing career in the early 1970's and served in several different capacities with Bill Communications and Freed Crown Lee Publishing before becoming Publisher of Dairy Foods and Prepared Foods magazines at Gorman Publishing. In 1991 he set out on his own, establishing Weeks Publishing Company with the successful launch of Food Product Design Magazine which subsequently became and remains today the preeminent food development and R&D focused publication/information source. Bob continued as Publisher of Food Product Design as well as Culinology magazine after being acquired by Phoenix-based Virgo Publishing LLC. in 2005. His 23 years in food publishing have established Bob as one of the foremost thought leaders in the food industry.

Snapdragons and Tomatoes

October 27, 2008 Bob Weeks Comments

Posted in Blog

It's going to be like deja-vu all over again.It is now being reported that British scientists have successfully inserted genes from the snapdragon flower into tomatoes which has greatly increased their level of proven cancer-fighting anthocyanins, as well as turning the normally reddish fruit purple.While tomatoes already contain significant levels of the cancer-fighting antioxidant pigments, the increase will put them on a par with blackberries, blueberries and currants reports Cathie Martin of the John Inness Centre of Norwich, England. Martin, a plant geneticist who led the research, says these tomatoes could be a much better source of anthocyanins due to higher per capita consumption, availability, and lower cost than the other fruit sources mentioned. People worldwide eat a lot of tomatoes!

Researchers fed 20 mice bred to be cancer-prone a diet that consisted of 10% powder from the genetically engineered tomatoes, with other groups getting no or red tomatoes. The study group lived 30% longer!

While the results are preliminary, they are very exciting. I wonder how long before the nay-sayers and anti-genetic engineering types take note and start their attacks?

Like I said, it will be like deja-vu all over again.