News On French Fries and Potato Specialties from Northern America

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 16, 2010

McCain to cut New Brunswick potato sourcing by 20 - 30 per cent

Florenceville-based McCain Foods Ltd. is cutting its potato sourcing in New Brunswick by 20 to 30 per cent to respond to lower demand for french fries and other market issues.Weaker U.S. fry consumption, a high loonie, competition from low-priced Euro...

March 15, 2010

Demand for potatoes drops as Americans eat fewer fries

A delicate global balance in potato trading, and the changes tastes of fry-shy boomers, are hammering the Maritimes potato patch, industry experts say. “U.S. people are eating out less these days,” McCain’s Canada spokesperson Calla Farn told the Sta...

March 15, 2010

Canadian Potato Growers gird for cutbacks

Joe Brennan and his fellow potato growers in New Brunswick are bracing for the fallout from the French fry meltdown.Mr. Brennan, who is also the chairman of Potatoes New Brunswick, the province's potato marketing board, says he will have no choice this...

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...

March 04, 2010

Potato growers take McDonald's Pesticide survey

Farmers who grow potatoes that end up as french fries at McDonald's and other fast food restaurants have begun taking surveys about how they produce the crop.About a year ago, McDonald's bowed to pressure from activist shareholders and agreed to make a...

February 27, 2010

Foodbanks benefit from Idaho Potato surplus

Food banks, charities and hungry people in Idaho are benefiting from a Idaho's surplus of potatoes.J.R. Simplot Co. donated 35,000 pounds of spuds Feb. 16 to the Idaho Foodbank and the Boise Rescue Mission."This is a tremendous donation,"he s...

February 24, 2010

McCain Foods buys 20 - 30% less PEI potatoes

McCain Foods Ltd. is cutting the volume of potatoes it buys from P.E.I. farmers by 20 to 30 per cent because of falling demand for french fries, Agriculture Minister George Webster said Tuesday. The cut may mean the company based in Florenceville, N....

February 23, 2010

Oldest French Fry line in Conagra Foods Lamb Weston Twin Falls factory retires

ConAgra Foods Lamb Weston will shut down the oldest of its potato processing lines in its Twin Falls factory, affecting up to 120 employees. Employees were informed of the line closure Monday afternoon. Marti DeMoss, communications manager for ConAgra...

Flavored french fries (Idaho Potato Commission)

February 21, 2010

No more 'Would you like fries with that'

It's time to bury that negative fast-food cliché, "Would you like fries with that?" In today's restaurant world, whether it's quick service or full service, operators are finding new ways to present and flavor fries, and customers are eating...

February 17, 2010

USDA Revision: Potato Stocks Up 11 Percent From February 2009

The 13 major potato States held 203 million cwt of potatoes in storage February 1, 2010, up 11 percent from a year ago and 2 percent above February 1, 2008. Potatoes in storage accounted for 53 percent of the 2009 fall storage States' production, 3 per...

February 16, 2010

ConAgra Foods Reaffirms Fiscal 2010 EPS Guidance and Long-Term EPS Growth Expectations

Today ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) will update the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) on the company's progress and outlook at the CAGNY annual conference in Boca Raton, Fla. ConAgra Foods CEO Gary Rodkin, Consumer Foods President André Haw...

February 08, 2010

First french fry contract settled in the US

Columbia Basin growers ratified a 2010 contract with Lamb-Weston last week. The editor of North American Potato Market News, Bruce Huffaker, reported that this was to be the second year of a two-year contract, which was indexed for production costs. Th...

February 05, 2010

Grotere vooraad aardappelen in de Verenigde Staten

De voorraad aardappelen in de Verengde Staten van oogstjaar 2009 per 1 februari 2010 ligt volgens cijfers van het NAPMN (North American Potato Market News) maar liefst 12% hoger dan vorig seizoen rond dezelfde tijd. Totaal zou de actuele voorraad nu ui...