You buy an apple in the shop, take it home and put it in the fridge, where it sits forgotten at the back of the shelf. Twelve months later, you take it out and bite into that year-old fruit. It is crisp, juicy and tastes just as good as the day it was plucked from the tree.

Meet the Cosmic Crisp, a new breed of apple now available in UK supermarkets. 

"It's an ultra-crisp apple, it's relatively firm, it has a good balance of sweet and tart and it's very juicy," said Kate Evans, a researcher at Washington State University who helped to develop the breed. Incredibly, the apple also "maintains excellent eating quality in refrigerated storage - easily for 10 to 12 months".

Cosmic Crisp is the result of a two-decade-long breeding programme to engineer the perfect apple. Its name derives from tiny white spots that dapple its red skin, resembling stars in the night sky.

A cross between the Honeycrisp and the Enterprise, the Cosmic Crisp can only be grown by certain approved farmers. 

"Like a fine wine, this innovative apple reaches its peak quality over time, becoming even tastier and more aromatic," say the Cosmic Crisp's growers in northern Italy. For the European market, they have come up with a new tagline: "heavenly pleasure". 

In the US, more than 12 million Cosmic Crisp trees have been planted across 12,000 acres. Demand was so high that farmers had to enter a lottery to get the first seeds.

For generations, farmers have carefully bred apples to make them crispier, juicier and sweeter. There are already 7,500 varieties of the fruit across the world.

New technology is making it easier for researchers to modify food across all areas of our diet. The CRISPRCRISPR-Cas9 allows scientists to remove, add or alter sections of DNA with ease and simplicity.  tool lets scientists change plant DNA to bring out or deactivate certain genes with incredible precision.

Aside from apples that do not brown, they are also working on non-bruising potatoes. In fact, in 2016, a Swedish scientist claimed to eat the first all-CRISPR mealStefan Jansson cultivated, grew and ate a cabbage that had been edited with CRISPR-Cas9..

In Japan, health conscious food lovers can sample the "Sicilian Rouge", a tomato with high levels of an amino acid thought to lower blood pressure. Meanwhile, in Britain, scientists at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich have designed another unusual tomato - this time resistant to mildewA type of fungus that grows on plants or damp organic materials. The tomato requires much less fungicide. . 

And it is not just plants that are on the menu. Researchers at Edinburgh University have created virus-resistant pigs, while other breeding projects include hornless dairy cows and sheep with extra muscle growth. 

Not every project has gone exactly according to plan. A mistake in the hornless dairy cows left the animals with bacterial DNA in their genomeThe complete set of genes in an organism. . 

But despite scare stories about genetically modifiedThese are defined as food that has had its genes edited in ways that do not occur naturally. Cosmic Crisp is not genetically modified because it was created by naturally cross-breeding existing species of apple.  and genetically edited foods, scientists insist that most varieties are considered entirely safeThere is no evidence that a crop is dangerous to eat just because it is GM. However, GM foods are subject to close scrutiny as certain genes could potentially have adverse health effects.. One hundred years from now, futurologistsPeople who study and predict the future. speculate that our diets could be composed entirely of "perfect" food, with a carefully engineered taste that never rots or goes stale.

Yes: We are just doing what we have done for thousands of years: breeding food that has the tastiest, most appealing characteristics. Technology could soon transform the way we eat forever.

No: There is something creepy and unnatural about an apple that never goes bad. Food is not about reaching for scientific perfection, it should be about enjoying what the land gives us naturally.

Or... In the Cosmic Crisp's native USA, more than £130bn of food goes uneaten every year. We should embrace any changes that could help to end this terrible waste of resources.

CRISPR - CRISPR-Cas9 allows scientists to remove, add or alter sections of DNA with ease and simplicity. 

Meal - Stefan Jansson cultivated, grew and ate a cabbage that had been edited with CRISPR-Cas9.

Mildew - A type of fungus that grows on plants or damp organic materials. The tomato requires much less fungicide. 

Genome - The complete set of genes in an organism. 

Genetically modified - These are defined as food that has had its genes edited in ways that do not occur naturally. Cosmic Crisp is not genetically modified because it was created by naturally cross-breeding existing species of apple. 

Safe - There is no evidence that a crop is dangerous to eat just because it is GM. However, GM foods are subject to close scrutiny as certain genes could potentially have adverse health effects.

Futurologists - People who study and predict the future.