Purple Magic, a new potato variety with high anthocyanin content developed in Northern Ireland, was created by Paul Watts at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in Loughgall, Ireland.
Watts has used innovative scientific methods to boost disease resistance and tolerance to stress within the potato breeding program over the last 30 years.
More recently, Watts invented a novel potato variety he hopes will appeal to modern consumers. There is a growing awareness of the positive health benefits of increased consumption of highly colored fruits and vegetables and the range of products being offered by supermarkets
“In the early 2000s, medical and nutritional research began to show there might be significant health benefits from eating fruit and vegetables with high levels of anthocyanins,” said Watts. “And in 2003 we made a series of crosses with colored heritage varieties to try and boost the levels of these antioxidants in new, high-yielding and disease-resistant varieties.
“The crosses yielded a rainbow of color in the 2,000-plus seedlings AFBI produced, and they had better yields and disease resistance than the parents. A Canadian potato producer visited AFBI Loughgall and this led to one of the seedlings being registered in Canada as Purple Magic. And, yes, people are buying it and they want more of it. We are now registering the variety in Europe and plan to have it on the market by 2018.”
Purple Magic has now reached the finals of INVENT 2016, which challenges inventors, entrepreneurs, scientists and startups with proof-of-concepts and prototypes in science and technology to discover the commercial potential of their ideas.
Entrants compete through rounds of pitching assessed by independent expert judges to win a share of a nearly $50,000 prize fund, access to its global network and a place on the NI Tech Mission to California.
Source: Belfast Telegraph