Simplot Embraces Biotech Field,
But Without Use of Foreign DNA

Biotech has come to J. R. Simplot Company, Boise, Idaho, USA, which has embarked on a program it calls Innate Technology, an all-native biotechnology platform for improving crops, leading to new, better and healthier foods.

Innate Technology is a patented plant biotechnology process that works with a plant’s own genes to enhance desirable traits and to decrease less desirable characteristics. Traditional plant breeding is a random method for crossing genetics with unpredictable results. But Simplot’s new technology precisely targets particular traits without introducing foreign DNA.

The company’s first application of Innate Technology involves improved potato varieties, which differ from their conventional counterparts in three ways: reduced black-spot bruising, reduced degradation of starch to sugars during storage, and reduced levels of the amino acid asparagines – believed to produce acrylamide, a potential carcinogen. These changes are regarded as beneficial to consumers and to the potato industry.

Simplot’s first application of Innate Technology has been submitted to the United States Department of Agriculture for regulatory review.