A genetically modified purple tomato, developed by California-based Norfolk Healthy Produce, has been approved for sale in Canada and is expected in grocery stores in the coming months.

The purple variety is a typical cherry-type tomato with extra anthocyanins, the natural pigment that also makes blueberries blue. The additional anthocyanins in the purple tomatoes are thanks to two genes from the edible — and famously purple — snapdragon flower. The addition of more anthocyanins than in conventional tomatoes means more antioxidants, according to Norfolk.

The company said the purple tomato was approved after extensive research and testing by Norfolk itself, the U.S. Food and Drug administration, as well as Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

According to Norfolk CEO Nathan Pumplin, the approval process began in 2019, more than a decade after Dr. Cathie Martin first developed the novel tomato in the U.K. Martin and Pumplin later co-founded Norfolk Healthy Produce.

“We had to grow the tomato for nine or 10 generations to show that it was stable,” said Pumplin. “All of (that) data went into the food and drug administration in the U.S., and that review process was over three years.”

After the approval in the US, Norfolk began its application with the CFIA in early 2025. In August, the tomato was officially approved for planting and consumption here in Canada.

“Health Canada’s review of the information presented in support of the use of Purple Tomato does not raise concerns related to food safety,” the federal department states at a web page detailing the approval.

‘As much as possible, I want people to understand that our tomato is really just a tomato. Yes, we use biotechnology to develop it. If you like tomatoes, you’ll probably like this. If you don’t like tomatoes, you’re not going to like it. ‘

— Norfolk CEO Nathan Pumplin

While the tomato has been rigorously tested, there are groups that remain apprehensive about the presence of a new, genetically modified food in gardens and on the market.

Organizations such as the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network have shared  concerns about potential contamination from GM plants and potential unknown health risks.

“This is the first GM tomato approved for growing in Canada and, if sold in grocery stores, it would be the first GM tomato in Canadian produce sections since Monsanto removed the Flavr Savr™ tomato from the market in 1997,” CBAN stated in a January “GM Product Alert” posted at its website.

“The sale of GM garden seeds constitutes a direct attack on organic food and farming, and a threat to Canada’s seed supply,” the CBAN alert states. “If genetically modified garden seeds are sold, there is a high likelihood they will contaminate seed stocks and end up, unwanted, in gardens and on farms across Canada.”

After its review, the CFIA stated that “Norfolk Healthy Produce’s purple tomato is not expected to transfer traits at rates different from other tomato varieties available in Canada,” and that “tomatoes are predominantly self-pollinated.”

Both the FDA and Canadian regulators have found virtually no difference between the purple tomato and a regular tomato in terms of health risk or advantage other than the benefit of added anthocyanins, which fall within the “range found in commonly consumed foods (e.g., blackberry, blueberry, cherry, red grapes, eggplant, etc.),” according the CFIA’s technical summary.

“As much as possible,” said Pumplin, “I want people to understand that our tomato is really just a tomato. Yes, we use biotechnology to develop it. If you like tomatoes, you’ll probably like this. If you don’t like tomatoes, you’re not going to like it. If you like the colour purple, you’re probably going to like it. You know, judge it on its merits as a tomato, as something that you like to eat and something to grow.”

 For Pumplin, the approval of the unusual tomato should help demystify genetically modified foods.

“People are not scared of GMOs the way that they were 20 years ago,” Pumplin argues. “And I think that a lot of that has happened of its own accord for a lot of other things . . . Our purple tomato has simply revealed that most people have moved on past that in a way that it hasn’t been revealed, because there wasn’t any way to show it.”

Along with the company’s philosophy of “healthy produce,” Norfolk encourages its customers to keep, share, and replant their seeds — an action that has prompted large companies to go as far as to sue farmers who are suspected of replanting patented seeds.

To Pumplin, allowing people to replant their seeds is “simply the right thing to do.”

“I love the band, the Grateful Dead, as does one of the other (Norfolk) founders, and one of the things that they did early on is they allowed people to tape their shows and trade the tapes rather than saying, ‘Hey! That’s bootlegging, that’s illegal!”

He added: “I love this work because it’s in service of a community of people who like interesting tomatoes, who like to eat healthy food, and I want to serve them as best I can.”

Pietro Amoriello, chef-owner of Del Piacere in Ottawa’s Little Italy, said genetic modification of food is an age-old practice — including the selective breeding of plants with certain traits that was carried out hundreds of years ago in the mountain-top monasteries of his home country, Italy.

“Everything we have now, many and many thousands of years ago, has not been this way,” Amoriello said. “The modification they do now is more sophisticated.”

Amoriello said purple tomatoes could be prepared in a caprese salad. He also suggested cooking the tomatoes very lightly in a seafood dish, for example, in order to preserve their striking colour and fresh taste.

Norfolk Healthy Produce makes similar suggestions in its recipe guide, The Purple Tomato Cookbook.

According to Pumplin, the purple tomato should be begin appearing in Canadian grocery stores in late spring or early summer and will be distributed by Kingsville, Ont.-based Red Sun Farms.

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