Pink

Watch out for them. They’re coming soon to a grocery store near you, and they’ll be hot…hot pink, that is. A rose shade of pink is the newest thing in pineapples.

Novelty is always a good thing for the bottom line, and the folks at Del Monte came up with the idea of turning pineapples pink. They’ve been working on this color makeover in Costa Rica since 2005.

Turning a yellow pineapple into a pink one is done by changing an enzyme that controls the color of the fruit. Here’s a description from the F.D.A. on how the growers accomplished this feat. “The new pineapple has been genetically engineered to produce lower levels of enzymes that convert the lycopene to the yellow pigment beta carotene. Lycopene is the pigment that makes tomatoes red and watermelons pink, so it is commonly and safely consumed.” Both lycopene and beta carotene occur naturally in pineapples.

With the F.D.A’s seal of approval, the pink pineapples arrived on the market in 2017. Since almost all the produce we eat in America is hybridized in one way or another, I’m not afraid of a pink pineapple. (After all, no mad scientist has put octopus genes in them or something bizarre like that.) Nevertheless, I will not be eating any of Del Monte’s trademarked Pinkglow pineapples. They’re selling for an incredible $30 each, and you don’t even get the leaves or crown of the pineapple. Del Monte farmers chop it off to replant and produce the next lucrative crop.

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