McCain Foods: it's a misconception that all fries are unhealthy

The french fry has long been one of the United Kingdom's staple foods -- almost as British as tea and scones. And, for 40 years, the U.K. has been a key market for the world's largest producer of french fries, Florenceville, N.B.-based McCain Foods Ltd. But a healthy eating campaign by a celebrity chef is cutting into McCain's U.K. profits, and is spurring the company into action.

Jamie Oliver has been campaigning against junk food in British schools since 2005. One of the targets of Oliver's ire has been the traditional British chip -- bad news for McCain's, the U.K's largest buyer of potatoes. Though the company isn't saying just how badly sales have been hurt by the chef's high-profile efforts to change Britain's national diet, they say the damage has been "significant."And they're concerned enough about sagging profits that Nick Vermont, the head of McCain's U.K. operations, launched a public relations offensive last week.