Applebee-owned franchisees will begin offering fruit-fly killer, jelly-fruit-walmart and fruit stripe gum in the first quarter of 2018, the company announced Wednesday.
The move comes a month after the company said it would phase out GMO crops by 2020.
Applebee’s CEO Brian McAndrews said in a statement that the new products will be offered in “most” of its U.S. stores in 2018.
Applebee has been one of the leading GMO growers in the country, but the company has faced pressure to stop the use of genetically engineered crops in recent years.
In addition to the fruit fly killers, the new offerings will include “a range of premium flavors and snacks” that will be made in partnership with the company, the statement said.
Applebees customers have been asking for these types of products since the company first introduced the Fruit Fly Killer in 2016, McAndrewy said in the statement.
The company has been aggressively testing non-GM products, including a “Kellogg’s Fruit Fly” in partnership in the past.
In 2016, the firm added a new fruit-killing product to its applebee’s apple-based menu: a “Fruit-Fly Killer.”
The new Fruit Fly killer is similar to its previous Fruit Fly and is a fruit fly-killing, jelly and fruit-stain gum that has been in development for years.
Apples decision to phase out GM crops has been controversial in the United States.
A 2016 study by the U.K.’s Royal Society of Chemistry found that up to 30% of apple products contain GM ingredients.
McAndrews and other Applebee leaders have argued that GM crops can be good for the environment, but have said they have been “misled” by the media and the public.
Apple was one of four U..
S.-based companies that sued the Food and Drug Administration over the agency’s decision to allow non-GE crops on the market in 2021.
The companies claimed the agency is overstepping its authority in approving GMOs.
