How Designer Fruit Is Taking Over the Grocery Store

Bold Names

The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2024

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

No more mealy apples and flavorless oranges. There’s a growing category of produce available in your local grocery store: fruits and vegetables that have been carefully bred with flavor in mind. But these more delicious varieties tend to come in premium packaging—with a premium price to boot. WSJ contributor Elizabeth G. Dunn tells host Alex Ossola how this produce is bred and whether we can expect to see more of it in the future. What do you think about the show? Let us know on Apple Podcasts or Spotify , or email us: [email protected] Sign up for the WSJ's free The Future of Everything newsletter. Further reading: This Strawberry Will Blow Your Mind: Inside the Startlingly Delicious World of Designer Produce The Race to Save Ketchup: Building a Tomato for a Hotter World Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's 4 a.m. and you're sucking baby snot through a tube because she's congested.
0:04.0	If you love her that much, love her enough to make sure she's buckled in the right car seat.
0:08.0	Find out more at NHTSA.
0:10.0	G.gov slash the right seat.
0:12.0	Brought to you by the National Highway Traffic Safety
0:13.4	Administration and the Ad Council. It's happened to all of us. You're browsing
0:20.3	at the grocery store and spot the most delicious looking apple. You didn't want an apple
0:25.2	before but suddenly you must have it. You buy it, you bring it home, you take that long
0:30.8	awaited first bite only to discover that your gorgeous apple is mealy and
0:35.9	tasteless. What a disappointment. These days, there are companies working to ensure that
0:41.3	never has to happen to you again.
0:43.8	They're promising the sweetest strawberries, the juiciest tomatoes, the most refreshing oranges,
0:49.3	that is, if you're willing to shell out for them.
0:51.9	What that comes down to is sweetness a lot of times,
0:55.3	also texture.
0:57.0	So they're trying to find the different elements
0:59.4	that really make the fruit or the vegetable
1:02.3	consistently pleasurable for a consumer to eat.
1:05.2	From the Wall Street Journal, this is the future of everything. I'm Alex Oscela.
1:09.7	Could the future be full of only the most delicious produce you've ever tasted?
1:14.3	Today I'm talking with W.S.J. contributor Elizabeth Dunn about how designer fruit is made
1:19.6	and what that means for the future of what's on our plate.
	...

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