North Carolina sweet potatoes have achieved superfood status as more and more people around the world discover their sweet, nutrition-packed flavor.
Between 2000 and 2016, consumption increased 42%, reaching 7.2 pounds per capita.
“Sweet potatoes are a nearly perfect food, ideal for consumers searching for the best healthy choices,” said Michelle Grainger, executive director for the Benson-based North Carolina SweetPotato Commission.
“Think fries, fresh cuts, even sweet potato tater tots,” Grainger said.
“Once we teach people how to cook them without all the sugar and marshmallows, we have a food even children ask for.”
While the majority of the N.C. crop remains the conventional orange-fleshed covington variety, Grainger sees growing consumer interest in organics.
“I believe this is largely due to consumer perception that ‘organic’ means healthy,” she said, “yet supported research finds no difference in nutritional value between organic and conventionally grown. This now becomes a matter of our producers meeting consumer demand.”
Of the newer varieties, purple sweet potatoes, with their purple-tinted skin and violet flesh are gaining traction, Grainger said. “The novelty of it keeps consumers searching for them,” said Grainger.
“And they photograph beautifully, providing great fodder for social media and those interested in pushing traditional culinary boundaries.”
The commission’s communications specialist CoCo Daughtry said state researchers are working on a new variety of purple sweet potato similar to the Stokes Purple, patented in 2006 in Stokes County, N.C.
Daughtry notes that purple sweet potatoes are less sweet than the traditional orange, with a warm, nutty flavor.
“For maximum sweetness, bake them longer at a lower temperature (350 F),” she said. “This will ‘crack’ the starches and produce a sweeter flavor.”
Charlotte Vick, partner/sales and marketing manager for Vick Family Farms, Wilson, N.C., said retailers are carrying more of her organic and specialty varieties as niche items, such as reddish-purple, white-fleshed murasaki, developed at the University of Louisiana in the early 2000s, and the sweet bonita, with its tan skin and white flesh. Vick also still grows a few acres of beauregards, red-copper tubers with deep orange flesh.
Nash Produce is seeing an increase in demand for its organics, bonita and murasaki varieties, said Rebecca Scott, grower accounting and marketing director for the Nashville, N.C.-based grower-shipper.
“A non-orange sweet potato is still unusual for many,” said Scott, “but adventurous consumers are often pleasantly surprised with their flavor. Both bonita and murasaki are wonderful alone or combined with other foods,” she said.
“Now that fall has arrived, I expect to see many pictures of sweet potato chili on social media.”
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