Potato News from Canada

May 08, 2008

P.E.I. donates spuds to Boston food bank despite hard times

The Prince Edward Island Potato Board is donating 18,000 kilogram of top-quality spuds to the Greater Boston Food Bank. The donation is part of International Year of the Potato. Ivan Noonan, a board spokesman, says Boston is a very important market f...

May 05, 2008

Gain Report: Oilseeds and Products Canada 2008

Total Canadian oilseed production during 2008/2009 is forecast to increase to 12.5 MMT from 11.5 million metric tons produced a year earlier. This increase is due to an 8% increase in canola production and a 12% increase in soybean production.Acreage i...

April 16, 2008

Ontario Schools To Be Trans Fat Free

Students in Ontario will be getting healthier because the food and beverages sold in schools will need to be free of trans fat.Levels of obesity among young Canadian children have nearly tripled over the last 25 years. Providing healthier options and ...

April 11, 2008

McCain employee's daughter wins American Kids' Safety-on-the-Job Poster contest

Promoting workplace safety at her dad's workplace – McCain Foods in Florenceville – has earned a 13-year-old Perth-Andover student a trip to the American capital and $1,000. Meghan Baker, a Grade 8 student at Perth-Andover Middle School, won first pla...

April 11, 2008

New Brunswick lost a prominent agricultural voice with the death of Ron Piper.

Piper's love of potato farming was known to all in the industry, and it led him to work with Potatoes New Brunswick. Executive director Robert Gareau said Piper spent six years with Potatoes NB, five of which he served on the executive as treasurer, v...

April 10, 2008

Canada proposes crackdown on food safety

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday unleashed a proposed consumer safety bill that could force food manufacturers in the country to improve tracking of suppliers and processes. Spurred on by a crisis in consumer confidence last year follo...

April 09, 2008

McCain Florenceville French Fry plant to resume operation today

The McCain Foods (Canada) potato processing plant in Florenceville should resume operation today, and the prepared foods facility next week, the company says. The plant shut down when a portion of a roof over a cold storage facility collapsed at about...

April 08, 2008

Cavendish Farms and the Culinary Institute announce Canada's 'smartest kitchen'

French-fries manufacturer Cavendish Farms and The Culinary Institute of Canada are teaming up to build a new research kitchen in Charlottetown. The $4-million kitchen will use the culinary resources of the institute and the market expertise of Cavendi...

April 08, 2008

Ammonia leak, roof collapse forces McCain Foods to close plant in Florenceville

McCain Foods officials are searching for the cause of a partial roof collapse at the Florenceville plant over the weekend. On Saturday afternoon, the roof over a cold storage unit at the plant crumbled into the facility, said Calla Farn, McCains' dir...

March 17, 2008

Canadian Foodservice market share shrinks in 2007

The foodservice industry’s share of the total food dollar dipped to 39.4% in 2007 from 39.7% in 2006 due to weakness in Central and Atlantic Canada. Since 2000, the foodservice industry’s market share has slowly eroded from 40.5% – the result of slo...

March 14, 2008

Humpty Dumpty Potato-chip plant failure worries P.E.I. development minister

The closure of the Humpty Dumpty potato-chip plant in Summerside has P.E.I. Development Minister Richard Brown concerned about the province's investment there. The plant's 36 employees were told this week they'd be out of work by May. When it opened ...

March 11, 2008

Wallace McCain honoured with International Horatio Alger Award

Like his roots, Wallace McCain is extremely humble when asked about being only the fifth Canadian to receive a prestigious American award for rags-to-riches business success.

Bulk potato storage for processing potatoes in the United Kingdom

March 05, 2008

Quality of Potatoes for Processing and the effect of Potato Storage; Some Basics

The amount of reducing sugars in the potato are responsible for the colour formation of fried products. So if potatoes are too high in reducing sugars, they are not suitable for processing.

March 05, 2008

Canada under pressure to ban junk food ads

Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's medical officer of health, is calling on Canadian politicians to address the country's growing obesity rate by banning junk food advertising to children under 13. Last week, acting on a recommendation by Dr. McKeown, the To...

February 29, 2008

McCain cutting production of concentrate at N.B. beverage plant

McCain Foods is cutting production of frozen juice concentrate at its beverage plant in Grand Falls, N.B., eliminating about 30 jobs. McCain says the jobs will be gone by April 18 when it consolidates production in Toronto. The company says the move w...

February 27, 2008

Chips and Snacks Production going local, very local

Today we want to address a new development in the snack sector which I would call: 'Snack production going local' . Two companies, 'Fresh Chips' and 'The Chippery' each offer a different concept that eliminates the industrial potato chips production line or the snack factory and replaces it with a mini factory you may soon find on your street corner, literally.

February 21, 2008

Agriculture Canada unveils 15 new experimental potato varieties in Fredericton

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has unveiled a new crop of experimental potato varieties, but it will be years before any find their way to your supper table. The new varieties were actually created six years ago, but only now have they gone through e...

February 20, 2008

Potato expert Eugenia Banks: Treasure trove of taters

Demand for specialty potatoes, with multi-hued skin and flesh, is booming.Potato expert Eugenia Banks' cache is nestled in white paper bags piled on pallets lined against the walls. Inside are prized potatoes: River John Blues and Purple Majesties, Win...