The First Meal Made with Crazy New Gene-Editing Technology Has Been Served

True novelty is hard to come by in the world of food. If you think you're going to nab a world record by serving up dirt to high-paying customers, think again. But one scientist may have just scored a true "world's first"—he served a meal for two made with CRISPR gene-edited ingredients.

CRISPR—a gene-editing technology that is often likened to a pair of scissors or Swiss army knife for the genome—is hot stuff in the world of science, and researchers are excited about the possibilities that the technology may bring. Using CRISPR, scientists can selectively cut out and replace tiny parts of DNA programming. Scientists think that this tool might help to do things like remove malaria from mosquitos, "cut" cancer and HIV right out of patients, or (in a more controversial example) remove undesirable traits like genetic diseases from human embryos. In China, it's already been used to make super buff dogs.

The promise of CRISPR in agriculture is no less exciting to plant scientists. Researchers believe they will be able to create drought-, disease-, and pesticide-resistant crops. And now, we've reached the next big step in demonstrating how this tool with intersect with the food world.

Stefan Jansson, a professor in plant cell and molecular biology at Umeå University in Sweden, recently invited a radio reporter to come over and have some CRISPR-edited cabbage for dinner—more specifically, tagliatelle with "CRISPRy" fried vegetables. Umeå University believes it's probably the first time a plant edited with CRISPR has been "cultivated, harvested and cooked"—at least out in the open for all to see.

No word on how the meal was received by the Swedish reporter, but Jansson had a bit to say about the vegetables' provenance: "The CRISPR-plants in question grew in a pallet collar in a garden outside of Umeå in the north of Sweden and were neither particularly different nor nicer-looking than anything else," Jansson said in his review, published in a press release.

The big question for CRISPR in agriculture is how these genetically edited plants and animals will be received by regulatory bodies and the public. Will they fall under the cloud of GMOs and therefore be banned from certain large international markets, or otherwise need to be labeled as CRISPR-edited?

So far, some regulatory groups are giving CRISPR the thumbs up. Unlike GMOs, plants and animals edited by CRISPR do not contain DNA from any other organisms. On those grounds, authorities in Sweden and America have distinguished CRISPR-edited organisms from GMOs. (The cabbage Jansson served met the Swedish criteria.) But elsewhere, campaigns have sprung up to combat the spread of CRISPR to food.

It will likely be some time before you are eating a CRISPR-edited dinner. But after all, according to Jansson, CRISPR could promise a "neither particularly different nor nicer-looking" version of your favourite food. And in accomplishing his culinary first, Jansson reached another milestone—the first CRISPRy pun in a dish name. And it surely won't be the last.