Bright pink and purple are hot new fashion colors for Canadian potatoes this spring.
Every year the Canadian government releases new potato varieties to the marketplace: the spuds that eventually end up sprouting in gardens, turning golden in deep fryers and mashed under our mashers.
This year, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has released 16 new varieties of potato, including one that is touted as possibly being better than the current standard french fry potato, the Russet Burbank.
There’s even a pink potato among the new tubers.
The potatoes were unearthed Wednesday at events in Guelph, Ontario; Frederiction, New Brunswick and Lethbridge, Alberta.
According to AAFC, the current crop of potatoes was narrowed down from over 120,000 hybrid seedlings. Those seedlings were grown, tested and bred with other varieties, measured and tested again to isolate the genes that make the new varieties more appealing.
Researchers are trying to breed potatoes that produce better yields, are more resistant to pests and diseases, or are easier to process. They’re also looking for better nutritional value and desirable cooking qualities: Potatoes are given boil, bake, french fry and chip scores.
According to the agency, the pink potato has a “good” boil score but only a “fair” bake score.
During boil tests, potatoes are ranked by AAFC on appearance, texture, off-flavor, sloughing and discoloration. Bake tests look at the same, but don’t consider sloughing. A bake score of less than 55 or a boil score of less than 50 is considered unacceptable.
For those who are wondering, the new pink potato, AR2016-07, has an overall mean bake score of 64. Another Canadian innovation, the Yukon Gold East potato, has an overall mean bake score of 83.
Source: CBC