Meet the Hansen sweet potato™

For the first time ever, we’ve developed and commercialized a new variety of vegetable. We call it the Hansen sweet potato™ Ipomoea batatas, and it offers unique coloring properties. Our global presence and traditional, non-GMO breeding made it happen.
The Hansen sweet potato™ gives you a brilliant red alternative to carmine and synthetic reds that’s:

• Vibrant and stable
• Plant based
• Free from off-taste

The first coloring products based on the Hansen sweet potato™ were launched in November 2018.

The story of an exceptional vegetable

A promising discovery

Our sourcing team first heard of the tuber that “became” the Hansen sweet potato™ – far from our headquarters. Its pigment content wasn’t impressive. But its color was promising.

No small task

The journey from newly discovered plant to useful products would be complex. So we took charge of the entire breeding, sourcing and production processes. It was the best way to develop and commercialize an excellent, reliable product.

A tale of tenacity

Our plant scientists spent years growing generations of sweet potatoes. They bred multiple varieties in each generation, searching for a unique combination of hardiness, high yield, brilliant color and high per-plant pigment load.

Learning by doing

Our crop scientists were out in the fields every day learning and sharing knowledge with our growers as they planted, grew, harvested and planted again. They learned the best ways to get the best pigment yield and quality. And they fed data back to the breeding team.

Mission accomplished
Today, we have our own purpose-built factory with plenty of capacity. And our customers have access to a line of excellent, reliable, natural colors, concentrates, and juices. That just so happen to be the best plant-based alternatives to carmine on the market.