News On French Fries and Potato Specialties from the United States

May 24, 2010

Conagra tries to reengineer the sweet potato

ConAgra Foods hopes to make the sweet potato a modern-day equivalent of its stepbrother, the russet potato. In the mid-1940s, entrepreneur J. R. Simplot developed the frozen French fry, thus elevating the russet from kitchen staple to multibillion-doll...

May 17, 2010

April Potato Processing in Idaho and Malheur County Up 5.5 Percent from Last Year

Processors in Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon used 6.90 million cwt of 2009 crop raw potatoes during April, up 5.5 percent from April 2009. Processors in Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon have used 56.1 million cwt of 2009 crop raw potatoes to May 1, ...

May 14, 2010

Simplot study: Ring fries beat straight cut French fries on health and taste

Frying potato rings rather than straight strips produces fries with less oil, lower levels of acrylamide, less salt, and better taste, says a new study from the US. “Our findings provide justification for a partial replacement of French fries with ring...

April 28, 2010

Conagra sustainable Development Awards: Park Rapids and Quincy Lamb Weston facilities recognized

ConAgra Foods announced today the winners of its 2010 Sustainable Development Awards, an internal awards program created to recognize outstanding achievements integrating sustainability into business practices while also sharing best practices across the company.

April 24, 2010

Idaho potato growers plant potatoes without deal

Idaho potato growers are taking to the field this spring without a collective agreement with major processors. The collective bargaining process broke down in Idaho last year following a dispute with ConAgra Foods. Growers blamed ConAgra, and the compa...

April 23, 2010

American Frozen Food Institute elects Wyman’s Edward R. Flanagan as Chairman

The American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) today announced the election of Edward R. Flanagan of Jasper Wyman &Son, Inc. to be chairman of the AFFI Board of Directors. "The American Frozen Food Institute is fortunate to have such a strong leade...

April 22, 2010

US Potatoes 2010: Processing down 6%, Spring Production Up

Production of winter and spring potatoes is estimated at 25.6 million hundredweight(cwt) in 2010, a 3-percent increase over 2009 and the highest level since 2004. (As of 2010, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service includes California winter ...

April 12, 2010

ConAgra Foods Lamb Weston and Agrian to Develop Enterprise-wide Agronomy Information System

ConAgra Foods Lamb Weston and Agrian announced today that they have reached an agreement under which Agrian will develop the company’s sustainability data collection and reporting system utilizing the Agrian suite of data management tools. The software...

April 05, 2010

Conagra Foods sets sustainability goals

ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) one of North America's leading food makers, today announced five aggressive sustainability goals to be achieved by 2015. The goals build on the company's sustainability accomplishments, which began in a company-wide fas...

March 28, 2010

Impact of Conagra Foods Lamb Weston plant closure

ConAgra Lamb Weston will close its potato processing plant in Prosser, Wash., on May 30, fostering fears other potato processors in the state may close. ConAgra announced the closure to its 250 employees at the plant on March 24, citing a poor market a...

March 24, 2010

Conagra Foods Lamb Weston closes Prosser potato processing plant

ConAgra Lamb Weston told 250 workers at its Prosser potato processing plant today that the plant will shut down on May 30. ConAgra spokesman Jeff Mochal said the decision is a reflection of the economy and a soft market for frozen potato products, in...

March 23, 2010

NASS: Frozen potato in storage down 7% compared to last year

The USDA NASS Cold Storage report released yesterday indicates there was a total of 1,106,521,000 pounds of frozen potato products in storage in the United States on February 28 2010. This is down 7% from last year and slightly up from the amount in s...

March 19, 2010

NYT blog: An easy way to make french fries

Quite some time ago, I wrote about cooking a beautifully seared, perfectly rare steak without filling your neighborhood with smoke . It’s time for the other shoe to drop: the french fries. In terms of outcome, there’s nothing wrong with cooking thes...

March 19, 2010

McCain Foods USA recalls McCain All American Roaster frozen potato due to suspect pepper ingredient

McCain Foods USA today announced a voluntary recall of the McCain All American Roaster frozen potato product listed below which contains a pepper ingredient that could be contaminated with Salmonella. The recalled product contains black pepper which ...

March 14, 2010

Do French Fries cause cancer?

A poster adorning the walls of KFC restaurants in California may just take your appetite away. Or at least make you consider giving up the fries. Here's what it says: "Cooked potatoes that have been browned, such as French fries, baked potatoes an...

The genetically modified starch potato Amflora

March 10, 2010

The History and Future of GM Potatoes

Last week the European Commission approved cultivation and processing of the genetically modified starch potato Amflora. The request for authorisation was submitted by Amflora's developer BASF in August 1996, more than 13 years ago!

In North America, currently no genetically modified potatoes are commercially grown. But the GM potato has already a colorful history in the US and Canada

March 09, 2010

Exportaciones de papas procesadas congeladas de Estados Unidos a México han caído en un 50%

(...) John Keeling, vicepresidente ejecutivo del Consejo Nacional de la Papa, dijo a los periodistas que es "muy fácil"para los productores de papas fritas canadienses llenar la brecha luego que el mercado mexicano se cerró a los productores...

March 08, 2010

New French Fries at Jack-in-the-box

French fry connoisseurs are a most discerning sort, perhaps even more so than their wine-tasting counterparts. Whereas wine aficionados practice five basic evaluations – color, swirl, smell, taste and savor – a true fries connoisseur also considers thi...