A global consortium of 14 leading apple companies has launched the Kissabel brand for its red-fleshed varieties, with the first commercial trials to get underway in the coming weeks.
Ifored said the brand philosophy is to offer “a range of innovative, completely natural, tempting apples, astonishing in both appearance and taste.”
Kissabel fruit is the outcome of more than 20 years of research conducted with exclusively natural methods by French breeder IFO, in which red-flesh wild apples were crossed with other varieties.
The result is an assortment of red-flesh apples, which differ in flesh shade, skin colour, flavour and harvest timing.
Three varieties have been chosen for the first commercial tests of the brand: Kissabel Rouge, Kissabel Orange, and Kissabel Jaune.
The group said the Rough variety has red skin and flesh, a bright colour and intense crisp flavour, enriched with hints of berries, while Orange has orange skin, pink-red flesh and a good sweet-tart balance. Jaune has freckled skin that reveals sweet flesh with delicate pink nuances.
“The Kissabel brand is characterised by the surprise of crunching into an apple and discovering its unique flesh colour and amazing flavour,” Ifored chairman Bruno Essner said.
“The Ifored partners are preparing for the release of Kissabel® apples all over the world in the next five years. The exciting Kissabel range will attract and retain a new generation of consumer thanks to their distinctive sensory characteristics”.
Additional red and pink flesh apples of various skin colours are also being assessed for future commercial production.
