Potato News from Northern America

SOME employees at the Simplot potato- processing plant in Portage la Prairie will see their hours cut in coming months due to a looming shortage of locally grown processing potatoes, industry officials say. Simplot spokesman David Cuoio said the Idaho...

Functional Technologies Corp. reports that efficacy studies conducted on end-user materials, investigating the Company's proprietary acrylamide-preventing (AP) yeast technology in a novel food application that traditionally does not incorporate yeast i...

General Mills announced today the acquisition of Food Should Taste Good, a rapidly-growing natural snack foods company based in Needham Heights, Massachusetts. Food Should Taste Good will become part of Small Planet Foods, General Mills’ natural and o...

SONIC is expanding its unique Tots offering by introducing new Sweet Potato Tots to its menu for a limited time. According to data from the USDA Economic Research Service, sweet potato U.S. per capita consumption has been on the rise, even as white po...

Princeton Vanguard, maker of Pretzel Crisps brand flattened pretzel snacks, has had their trademark challenged by snack food giant Frito-Lay, which claims the mark is too generic to sustain a trademark registration. It’s a trademark brand name dispute...

The American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) today announced the election of four officers and nine members to the AFFI Board of Directors. The elections took place on Feb. 20 at the AFFI Annual Meeting in San Diego held in conjunction with the 2012 AFFI...

To celebrate McDonald's delicious French Fries, the company called upon consumers to share the special moments in their lives they want paired with a side of the World Famous Fries by hosting the "You Want McDonald's Fries With That"Contest.

The potato industry generates more than $1 billion for the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island (PEI), says an economic impact study released Friday. The study, put out by the P.E.I. Potato Board, also shows the sector creates more than $245 mill...

Asunta (Susie) Thompson is the winner of the 2012 NPPGA Meritorious Service Award. It was presented to her at NPPGA's annual banquet. This comes on the heals of winning a Meritorious Service Award from the National Potato Council in January. Dr. Thom...

President Obama's budget proposal for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 proposes cutting $700 million in the USDA's spending levels.The amount represents a 3 percent cut from FY 2012 USDA spending levels.

PACK EXPO International 2012, which comes to Chicago’s McCormick Place October 28–31, has already seen space sales top 1 million net square feet. “Reaching this milestone this far out from the show makes a statement about the role PACK EXPO plays in t...

For the second consecutive year, a large process potato grower will head the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association. Jeff VanRay from Pingree, North Dakota passed the gavel to Larimore, North Dakota grower Carl Hoverson at last Tuesday's annual b...

The International Potato Technology Expo returns to the Charlottetown Civic Centre February 24-25, 2012. This popular event has been running in Charlottetown every two years since 1992. Over the years, this has become a must-attend industry event for...

Snyder's-Lance, Inc. (Nasdaq-GS: LNCE), today announced the construction of a state-of-the-art Research and Development Center in Hanover, Pennsylvania. The center, located near one of the Company's largest bakeries, will research, develop and enhanc...

The restaurant industry’s strong monthly same-store sales in December carried into January driven by favorable weather and solid traffic trends, according to the latest NRN-MillerPulse survey. January same-store sales rose 4.9 percent, and while they ...

The American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) is pleased to announce that the 2012 AFFI Frozen Food Convention in San Diego has matched the convention's all-time attendance record set two years ago. More than 1,400 members of the frozen food industry ga...

Denise Austin, the Idaho Potato Commission’s (IPC) long-time spokesperson, celebrated American Heart Month on behalf of the IPC with two major initiatives: a 35-city satellite media tour (SMT) and an online re-release of the IPC's national television c...

Corn Products International, Inc. (NYSE:CPO), a leading global provider of ingredient solutions to diversified industries, today announced that it intends to change its name to Ingredion pending shareholder approval at its annual meeting in May. The n...