Netherlands: HZPC Wins Patent for an Antioxidant-Rich Potato That Still Looks Like a Potato
Royal HZPC Group has been granted a patent for a potato with significantly increased levels of flavonoids — natural antioxidants — while keeping the familiar white or yellow flesh that consumers expect, the Dutch breeding company announced this week.
Flavonoids belong to the polyphenols, a group of plant compounds associated with potential health benefits. They occur naturally in red- and purple-fleshed potatoes, but those colours remain a niche choice: most buyers still reach for potatoes with traditional flesh. HZPC’s breeding programme set out to combine both properties, and researchers found that by stacking different genetic traits they could raise the concentration of the flavonoid kaempferol without changing the tuber’s conventional appearance, as FreshPlaza also reported on 13 October.
“We have filed a patent application for this innovation because we believe it represents a genuinely novel and distinctive development. It is an important step in protecting a unique innovation. We have developed a trait that combines the potential health benefits of coloured potatoes with a potato that looks more familiar to consumers,” said Stan Oome, Program Leader Molecular Biology at Royal HZPC Group.
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The company stresses that the patent marks the start of a new phase rather than the end of one. HZPC is now exploring which applications and markets suit the trait best: potential uses include both table potatoes and processed potato products, and further research is under way to optimise the characteristic and integrate it into future varieties.
The announcement underlines a broader point about where breeding value may come from next, Oome suggested. Much of the sector’s innovation effort goes into yield, disease resistance and agronomic traits; this development instead targets a characteristic that speaks directly to consumers.
For growers and the trade, an antioxidant-rich table potato with standard flesh colour could open a differentiated segment — provided the trait makes its way from patent document into commercial varieties, a process that typically takes several years of selection and trialling.
Sources: Royal HZPC Group; FreshPlaza.
