Xuwei Wang¹ , Junting Ye²

1 Ningbo Agricultural Technology Extension Station, Ningbo, 315012, Zhejiang, China
2 Agricultural and Rural Office of Qiaotou Town, Cixi City, Cixi, 315317, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
Biological Evidence, 2026, Vol. 16, No. 4   
Received: 18 Jul., 2026    Accepted: 20 Aug., 2026    Published: 27 Aug., 2026

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Colored potatoes have attracted increasing attention in the fields of food nutrition, agricultural production, and functional product development due to their rich nutritional composition and high levels of bioactive compounds. This review focuses on the differences among purple-, red-, and yellow-fleshed potatoes in major nutritional traits, including starch, dry matter, and protein content, and analyzes the effects of genotype, ecological environment, cultivation practices, storage conditions, and processing methods on quality formation and bioactive compound accumulation. Purple- and red-fleshed potatoes generally contain higher levels of anthocyanins, total phenolics, and antioxidant capacity, whereas yellow-fleshed potatoes are characterized by higher carotenoid accumulation. However, high concentrations of functional compounds do not necessarily correspond to higher yield, dry matter content, or better processing suitability. Therefore, cultivar selection for colored potatoes should consider nutritional value, eating quality, production adaptability, and processing requirements simultaneously. This review summarizes the application potential of colored potatoes in fresh consumption, staple food products, snack foods, natural colorants, and functional ingredients. Future research should focus on the breeding of high-quality cultivars, region-specific production evaluation, sustainable cultivation practices, and nutrient-retention processing technologies, providing references for the efficient utilization and industrial development of colored potato resources.

Colored potatoes; Nutritional quality; Bioactive compounds; Production utilization; Difference analysis