On October 13, 2020, fruit giant Del Monte Fresh released its Pinkglow pineapple, which is genetically modified to produce pink flesh. With price points as high as $29-39 depending on your location, Pinkglow is beyond many consumers' budget. However, exclusivity suits Del Monte just fine, as Pinkglow is mostly marketed for its novelty and social media appeal.

Why is it pink?

Del Monte reportedly worked on the pink pineapple for 16 years before its release. Already a dominant force in the fruit industry, they were looking for "a niche product that could expand the market for pineapple." The rest of the world's pineapples, including the millions already grown and sold by Del Monte each year, are yellow-fleshed. 

Pinkglow's appeal seems to rest largely on its social media potential. A 2024 pineapple giveaway required entrants to like photos of the hashtagged GMO on Instagram and tag three friends in the comments. The product's website encourages you to "become the envy of your friends and followers with this highly sought-after delicacy. Pinkglow™ will look phenomenal on whatever social media platform is en vogue by the time you read this."

How is it pink?

Pineapples naturally turn yellow as they ripen due to the production of beta-carotene, which is controlled by an enzyme in the pineapple. In Pinkglow pineapples, the genetic material is modified so that the enzymes that make the flesh yellow are suppressed, resulting in a pinkish pigment.

Pineapple joined the Non-GMO Project Standard's High-Risk List in 2019, concurrent with Pinkglow's market entry and the release of the USDA's List of Bioengineered Food. A high-risk designation indicates which ingredients are more likely to come from a GMO, which triggers greater scrutiny during product evaluation. You can find out more on our website, Understanding Risk Status.

A nonsensical indulgence

Pinkglow pineapple was launched into an environment very different from the one in which it was conceived. Remember, its gestation period was sixteen years. The product launch coincided with the height of the COVID pandemic, when daily life for many people had been upended entirely. Against a backdrop of chaos and uncertainty, Del Monte doubled down on whimsy, introducing a prohibitively expensive product at a time when food insecurity doubled in a single year. 

Food & Wine credited Pinkglow's inventors with a kind of prescience: "It’s like Del Monte knew 2020 would be the year nothing needs to make sense." 

Some might criticize Del Monte's tone-deafness, elitism, or the vast resources that went into Pinkglow's development. Setting aside the cost of a single Pinkglow, years and fortunes were spent on a pink pineapple. Making GMOs isn't easy. It takes time and tenacity to force an organism to accept our crude interventions. A good portion of those sixteen years was nature, resisting. That's an astounding investment in what is ultimately an accessory that's ripe for social media.

Every human action is ultimately bound, to some degree, by limited resources. Whether that limit is what's in our bank accounts or kitchen cupboards, how we spend our talents or the tasks that fill our lives — these things are all precious resources. Let’s spend them wisely.