The “Rolls Royce” of Tomatoes Is Coming to Australia – but What’s Driving It?

“As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be a winner,” says Travis Murphy, managing director of All Aussie Farmers, the company bringing Purple Bliss tomatoes to Australia this year. 

About the size of a cherry tomato, with rich purple skin and flesh, the fancy new fruit is set to be the first genetically modified fresh food available in Australian grocery stores, after clearing approval by Food Standards Australia New Zealand in January. Meanwhile, the Gene Technology Regulator has also approved the tomatoes to be grown here.

But that arresting colour goes beyond the merely aesthetic. 

Purple Bliss was engineered in 2021 by Californian tomato-breeding company Norfolk Health Produce using the genes of edible snapdragon flowers. Professors Cathie Martin and Jonathan Jones wanted to see if they could increase the fruit’s flavonoids – particularly the pigment anthocyanin – to make them even healthier for humans.

“Anthocyanin is a bioactive product that has myriad beneficial effects in the body,” says Alfonso Garcia-Bennett, associate professor of the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University. “It’s a powerful antioxidant, and it has anti-inflammatory properties.”

Though anthocyanin is already part of the genetic make-up of a tomato, Garcia-Bennett says it’s simply been “switched on” by the genes of the snapdragon flower. The deep purple colour reflects the tomato’s increased anthocyanins – technically making it a “superfood”.

“Any purple fruit or vegetable will have that high content of anthocyanin, so blueberries and blackberries have a high content of anthocyanin.”

But considering we already have the same antioxidant benefits from other fruit and veg, is a purple tomato really necessary? “Anthocyanin should be part and parcel of anybody’s balanced diet,” says Garcia-Bennett. “The sweetness of these tomatoes might encourage people to eat more tomatoes.”

Murphy, who admits he’s not usually a tomato eater, says the Purple Bliss taste sweet. “I’ve been fed a lot of these tomatoes [in the US] and they are very sweet, nice and juicy,” he says. “Someone who’s not normally a tomato eater might enjoy them.”

Victoria will be the first state to taste Purple Bliss, as All Aussie Farmers is based there. After that, the plan is to supply them to specialty grocers in Queensland and New South Wales. (The company was already working with the first confirmed grower, Nick Bischoff at Clearview Valley farm in Buaraba, Queensland.)

The first step is to get the seeds, “which is going to take a couple of months because of testing in the US,” says Murphy. “We’re earmarked for spring.”

Purple Bliss will eventually be available in supermarkets too, but it’s not about mass production – at least initially. “It’s the Rolls Royce of the tomato world,” says Murphy. “We want it to be a high-quality product, but it’ll be affordable. We want to make sure everyone gets to taste it.”

GM crops are widely established in Australia’s agricultural industry. For example, more than 99 per cent of cotton and roughly 46 per cent of canola grown here is genetically modified. There are experimental field plantings of GM barley, sugarcane, and wheat, as well as a GM banana that was approved in 2024 but is unlikely to be available in supermarkets anytime soon.

Chef and restaurateur Mark Best, who leads the kitchen at Sydney’s Infinity, says genetic modification is “not a simple yes or no issue”, but is still curious to try Purple Bliss. 

“My starting point is always flavour, integrity of the ingredient, and how it fits into a broader food system,” he says. “If a product is genuinely improving nutrition, resilience or reducing inputs like water, chemicals or waste, then it deserves serious consideration. 

“At the same time, chefs and diners value trust, provenance and a clear understanding of how food is produced. That conversation has to be open and honest.”

Purple Bliss is expected to hit Victorian grocers in spring, followed by grocers in New South Wales and Queensland. Seeds will also be available in nurseries.