News On French Fries and Potato Specialties from Northern America

For the recently completed marketing year, the volume of US potato and potato product exports grew 10 percent to the fresh weight equivalent of 65,271,616 hundredweight. This is equal to 16 percent of total US potato sales for the year. For the past 10...

The process for preparing frozen, par-fried potato strips — distributed to some food outlets for making french fries — can influence the formation of acrylamide in the fries that people eat, a new study has found. Published in ACS’ Journal of Agricult...

Last week the USDA published the final overview and latest revision of potato harvest 2011, Potatoes 2011 Summary.

McCain Foods USA has announced it will begin a major capital improvement and renovation project for its Burley 2 potato plant in Idaho. The project is slated to begin this fall and will be completed over the next 2 years. The renovation of Burley 2 w...

ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) announced today that it is expanding its facility in Russellville, AR to make Bertolli® and P.F. Chang's® frozen meals. The expansion, anticipated to be a $100 million investment, is expected to create more than 80 jo...

The United States Potato Board (USPB) Year-End Online Advertising Campaign results are in. The FY 2012 campaign was highly successful, building off momentum from the past two years. Total recipe interactions nearly quadrupled during this past year. Tha...

The J. R. Simplot Company is planning to begin construction in late 2013 or early 2014 of a new headquarters building in Boise, Idaho. Company officials anticipate the building will be about 10 stories high and measure roughly 300,000 sq. ft. Final si...

Plant Health Technologies (PHT), the proprietary products division of Simplot Growers Solutions (SGS), launched an innovative application for iPhone and Android smartphones customized for crop advisors, applicators, and growers.

The United States Potato Board (USPB) International Marketing program is proud to announce US exports of all potatoes and potato products for FY12 (July 2011-June 2012) were 1,506,557 metric tons (MT) valued at $1,583,563,167. This was a 10 percent i...

Margate Farms Ltd. of Kensington was named the 2011-2012 McCain Champion Potato Grower for P.E.I. during the annual McCain Growers’ Banquet.

PotatoPro has learned that Tomra Sorting Solutions has won major contracts for the delivery of optical sorters and peeling equipment for the new Simplot Potato Processing facility in Idaho.

The U.S. Potato Board has agreed to quadruple its annual contribution to a year-old organization charged with defending the french fry. Effective this crop year, USPB will increase its investment in the Alliance for Potato Research and Education (APRE...

ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) announced today that it has completed its acquisition of the Bertolli® and P.F. Chang’s® Home Menu frozen meals businesses from Unilever PLC, for total cash consideration of $267 million, subject to adjustment. The comp...

The former Klamath Basin Fresh Direct has officially changed its name to Klamath Basin Fresh Organics. Chairman Dan Chin said the business is solely focused on organic production, and the name change makes that direction clear.

The Town of Florenceville-Bristol, French Fry Capital of the World and hometown of McCain Foods hosted National French Fry Day celebrations with free fries and fun activities for all. People of all ages enjoyed hot, crispy golden McCain French Fries ...

Novozymes, the world leader in bioinnovation, recently announced today they have new, third party data that shows Novozymes Acrylaway® is effective in the industrial production of French fries. Acrylamide has been considered a potential health risk si...

The University of Idaho extension today announced that the potato psyllids found last month in Idaho tentatively tested positive for Liberibacter, Zebra Chip disease.

McCain Foods in Othello reached a settlement agreement this week with the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) over violations of the plant’s air quality permit, vowing to avoid any similar violations in the future.