North Carolina Sweet Potatoes Are Making It on to More American Tables Than Ever

In partnership with: North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services

Whether as frozen fries, fresh-cut spirals or microwavable side dishes, North Carolina’s sweet potatoes are appearing on more American tables than ever before, providing the variety and efficiency that today’s families demand. Produce departments now offer peeled and ready-to-cook sweet potato cubes, spirals and wedges. Sweet potatoes even make it onto ingredient lists for some flours, sweeteners, potato chips, baby foods and dog treats in the store’s center aisles. And in the freezer section, sweet potato fries, pies, tater tots, casseroles and even sweet potato-flavored ice creams showcase the vegetable’s versatility for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and snacks.

“There are very few aisles in the grocery store where you can’t find a sweet potato product,” says Michelle Grainger, executive director of the North Carolina SweetPotato Commission, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2021. “This doesn’t have to be your grandmother’s sweet potato recipe. You don’t have to have brown sugar and marshmallows on it; there are so many ways to enjoy it.”

See more: North Carolina Chefs Take Local Ingredients From Farm to Fork

Packing a Nutritious Punch

Sweet potatoes earn status as a superfood for their abundance of beta-carotene, fiber, iron, and vitamins A, B and C in a low-calorie package. Yet, this nutritionally superior complex carbohydrate delivers a beneficial economic impact to the state, too.

North Carolina overwhelmingly ranks No. 1 in U.S. sweet potato production, producing more than double the volume of second-place California in 2020. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, family-owned farms in North Carolina grew 16.8 million pounds of sweet potatoes on 106,000 acres in 2020, nearly twice the acreage planted in 2010.

Farmers are growing more of the commodity because health-conscious shoppers want more. International demand is also expanding, and Grainger says technological improvements have helped people enjoy sweet potatoes year round. Modern storage systems improve the crop’s longevity, and new varieties, like Covington – developed at North Carolina State University – are popular for their longer storage life and consistent, preferred flavor profile.

North Carolina successfully meets this growing hunger for sweet potatoes with its ideal soil and climate conditions, which grow 60 percent of the nation’s annual sweet potato supply.

Savoring Value-Added Products

North Carolina’s family farms begin planting sweet potatoes in late May. From late August through October, farmers harvest the crop primarily by hand to protect its tender flesh. After curing, the sweet potatoes head to shippers for distribution or to processors who make them into value-added products.

Trinity Frozen Foods LLC uses only North Carolina-grown sweet potatoes to make its highly acclaimed frozen sweet potato fries, which are distributed to restaurants and grocery stores around the world. The company also sells fresh raw sweet potatoes and a line of sweet potato flour used in various dry mixes, such as pancake mix, waffle mix and seafood breading – all free of gluten, GMOs and allergens.

“We continue to innovate our product line based on our customers’ requirements and ideas,” says Barry White, manager of Trinity’s fresh products plant in Clinton. “We recently introduced a sweet potato toast product that is a healthy, great-tasting alternative to gluten-free bread.”

Value-added products on the market bring variety, speed and convenience to a nutritious vegetable that Americans have come to enjoy every month of the year, not just around fall harvest time and the holidays. The evolution in product offerings accommodates households short on time without sacrificing flavor or nutrition.

“Our frozen sweet potato fries can be prepared in several minutes in a fryer or within 20 minutes in an oven,” says Cliff Harrison, manager of Trinity’s frozen foods plant in Pembroke. “So either way, our sweet potato fries are a quick and very healthy food.”