In searching for the Holy Grail of potatoes – that is, the next Yukon Gold – researchers could very well dig up something red.          

University of Guelph professor Alan Sullivan says some of the most promising lines they’ve tested have red skin and red flesh.           

It’s too early to name them – they’re still just experimental lines. But with their higher levels of antioxidants and their unique red flesh, there’s reason to hope that in the hearts and homes of consumers, red varieties will pick up where Yukon Golds – which are fading from the scene -- left off.

“Coloured varieties have gone from a novelty to a staple,” says Sullivan. “Now, we have to support growers by developing lines with desirable traits and higher yields.”

Sullivan, research technician Vanessa Currie and the handful of other potato breeders and specialists in the country are keeping their eyes peeled in fields and labs for new potato lines with features that put spuds in the spotlights.

For Yukon Golds, the combination of their buttery colour and nutty taste captured consumers’ attention for ages. In fact, so regaled are Yukon Golds that they finished in the top five in last fall’s popularity poll of all-time game-changing inventions from Ontario universities, called Research Matters.

Unfortunately, despite their popularity with consumers, Yukon Golds were not a hit with growers, owing to disease susceptibility problems, particularly PVY-NTN virus and hollow heart. Today, they only comprise about five per cent of the 36,000 potato acres in Ontario.

They also have high hopes for purple varieties too, which have caught consumers’ imaginations. Breeding efforts are underway to improve their texture, which Sullivan describes as too “mushy and pasty” for most consumers.

So the search continues for experimental lines that can be developed into varieties that combine desirable consumer traits and superb production values, including disease resistance.

These days, breeders still pay special attention to bacterial disease resistance, especially late blight. Even more than a century-and-a-half after the Irish potato famine, which was caused by late blight, researchers continue their quest to figure out ways to master this stubborn disease.

“If it’s bad, late blight can devastate a potato crop in a matter of days,” says Sullivan. “If it’s less severe, the potatoes don’t store well, which is what happened in Ireland. The potatoes went rotten in storage and people starved. With late blight, there is simply no room for error . . . if it looks like there’s any sign of it in the field, a producer has to spray immediately.”

Production problems aside, a good story can be told about potato production in Canada – it rose more than 4.5 per cent in 2015 over the previous year. Potatoes are still a staple food in our culture, and after being unfairly beaten down by anti-carb advocates, potatoes are again being recognized for their health benefits.

All this is inspiring researchers such as Sullivan and Currie to maintain or intensify their drive for new lines that work for both growers and consumers.

At the University of Guelph, the potato breeding program is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and the federal Growing Forward 2 program. About 120 new lines are being tested at any one time, including 10 lines dedicated to potatoes that store a little longer and mature a little sooner. Sullivan and Currie keep several hundred pounds of them in a commercial storage facility near Shelburne, removing a selected lot very month and assessing their performance.

Storage is not as simple as it seems. Potatoes are living organisms, and finding the sweet spot for storage is challenging. One goal is to develop a variety that capitalizes on the five-six week gap between the old crop that’s in storage, and the new crop coming off the field.

It’s a lucrative period for growers, one that breeders like Sullivan and Currie want to support en route to finding the new gold standard of potatoes – whatever colour it is.