Purple Chantenay carrots have gone on sale in a leading supermarket for the first time - supplied by a Peterborough company. The vegetables have been supplied into 120 Waitrose stores by the Peterborough-based Produce World Group.
The carrots, which are grown by Nottinghamshire-based Freshgro, will be on sale for six weeks.
Waitrose buyer Patrick Keane said: “In many ways it’s the perfect combination in one product.
“We know that people love the sweet taste of Chantenay carrots. The purple colour is something of a novelty and these carrots will look fantastic on the plate, whether in a salad, stew or cooked as one of your vegetables. We’ll be stocking them in 120 stores for a six-week period and I anticipate that they will be very popular.”
As well as the vitamin A and beta-carotene provided by ordinary carrots, purple carrots are also said to be rich in anthocyanins, the antioxidant compounds that give blueberries their distinctive colour.
Ironically purple was the original colour of carrots.
It was not until the 17th century that orange became the predominant carrot colour, when Dutch breeders introduce them as a tribute to their monarch William of Orange.
