CALGENE IS STILL AWAITING OK OF FLAVR SAVR TOMATO

JOANNA RAMEY

WASHINGTON (FNS) -- Calgene Fresh is still awaiting Food and Drug Administration approval of its bioengineered Flavr Savr Tomato, but is optimistic it will be "any day now," according to a company spokesman.

The Evanston, Ill.-based firm hopes to rush the high-tech vegetable into its first test-market in Chicago by early February.

What Calgene has created is a ripened tomato that can arrive at a grocer without being bruised or spoiled, the spokesman said.

But FDA officials aren't saying whether approval of the tomato -- which ripens on the vine but doesn't soften -- is imminent.

"We're working on it very hard," said Laura Tarantino, chief of FDA's biotechnology policy branch. "There's just no way we can predict" when the review will be complete.

The additive in the tomato is a so-called "marker gene" that allows scientists to know quickly whether the tomato's desired biotechnological effects are achieved.

Tarantino said FDA is looking into whether the marker would have any effect in neutralizing antibiotics used in animal feed.

Meanwhile, a study on gene-altered foods recently released by the Union of Concerned Scientists questions the long-term environmental implications of plants that are developed using the technique.

Tarantino said she hasn't yet read the study and didn't know if it would weigh in FDA's decision on the Calgene petition.

Although it's not mandatory, Calgene has also asked FDA to give its seal of approval to the actual technology that went into developing the tomato. Basically, scientists developed a seed with a "backward gene" in which the tomato's genetic material has been reorganized.

In May 1992 FDA essentially gave its blanket approval to the burgeoning science of biotechnology and food by saying that the agency didn't need to treat gene-altered foods with regulations outside of those already governing other foods.

While several growers pulled out of contracts with Calgene in 1993, approximately 20 growers are currently working with the tomato.