If you happen to be in the United Kingdom now, maybe you would like to take a look inside their Mark and Spencers food stores. It is reported that Boffins have been creating some new varieties of familiar fruits and vegetables.

Here are just some of the “unfamiliar”  fruits and vegetables that might welcome you upon entering the store:

* Black Velvet Apricots - which look rather like plums
* Crème de Lite carrots - they are pale cream coloured
* Mayan Twilight potatoes - with purple stripes
* Flower Sprout- a cross between curly kale and Brussels sprouts
* Baby Lemons- much dinkier than the usual variety
* Tiny Tangerines - again, small versions of a familiar food

Contrary though to what you think, these are not genetically modified versions of the fruits and vegetables. They are produced in a traditional way by carefully crossing the genetic platforms of these foods. This process is called selective breeding.

Although most people might finding these new breeds unusual, Hugh Mowatt, a food technologist, said that it was only some 400 years ago when carrots became “naturally” orange. He said that people only think these vegetables and fruits are natural because we grew up thinking they were.