Danish-based bioscience company Chr. Hansen has developed an alternative to the insect-based food coloring carmine using potatoes. The company developed the Hansen sweet potato using selective breeding over the last ten years. The result is a highly-pigmented vegetable which provides the same vibrant red level of color as carmine.

Carmine is traditionally made from crushed cochineal beetles, which live on cacti in Latin American countries. They are predominantly farmed in Peru, according to the BBC, and have become a key staple ingredient for many companies in the food industry.

The cochineal’s signature bright red color comes from carminic acid, which “makes up almost a quarter of the bugs’ weight, and deters predation by other insects,” the BBC notes. “The bugs, which are about 5mm or 0.2 inches long, are brushed off the pads of prickly pear cacti. It is the wingless females that are harvested, rather than the flying males.”