News on The Potato Supply Chain from Northern America

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

During late January, the United States Potato Board (USPB) Chip Committee held a conference call with chip processors to gauge their interest in funding an expansion of the material development program to fast track the breeding of new chip-stock potat...

SNAXPO 2010, the world’s largest trade show devoted exclusively to international snack foods, opened in Fort Worth, TX Thursday, March 4, where nearly 1500 industry professionals from some 35 countries gathered to explore key issues and ideas, as well...

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) is now taking its place beside peanuts, pistachios, and powdered milk as a food ingredient causing recalls of many, many individual products.Hydrolyzed vegetable protein is a common ingredient used most frequently as...

March 10 marks the one-year anniversary of Congress’s decision to terminate the cross-border trucking program with Mexico, a move found illegal under NAFTA and generating retaliatory tariffs on more than 90 U.S. products and subsequent decreases in export

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...

Safeway Inc. has been notified by Reser's Fine Foods that it has voluntarily recalled several products that may be contaminated with Salmonella. As a precautionary measure, Safeway is participating in the recall by voluntarily recalling the following p...

Americans love potatoes, consuming about 130 pounds per person annually.

Researchers are developing new potato varieties that resist attacks by pests and diseases. There are even potatoes developed to resist pests in specific geographical areas. At the same time scientists are developing colored potatoes, which consumers pr...

Tasteful Selections LLC introduces a line of specialty potatoes.   Products include fingerling potatoes, small potatoes in red, white, yellow and purple varieties and in sizes ranging from marble and peewee to standard B and C.   Tasteful Selections pl...

Keith Masser, a seventh generation potato farmer, is no dummy. A graduate of Penn State with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering, Masser always has his eye on the bottom line.

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...

P.E.I.'s farming industry was dealt another blow Friday when it was learned that Irving-owned Cavendish Farms was cutting 20 farmers who normally grow for the company. Agriculture Minster George Webster said Irving is cutting smaller growers with po...

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....

Warren Hennigar turned his vision of a third party inspection company for the potato processing industry in North America into reality 12 years ago with the creation of Ag World Support Systems. Today, he is CEO of a company with locations in Easton, ...

At 43, Gregg Garrison is amused that he’s been targeted as a young and up-and-coming potato farmer.“The new young is 40,” he says, after giving a small chuckle when asked his age. “I probably don’t look the part.”The Maine Potato Board at the end of 20...

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...

On February 17, at the Potato Research Centre in Fredericton, experimental potato selections were unveiled, including a number of red skins. Red skinned potatoes are hot thanks in part to a consumer and restaurant industry trend toward potatoes that ca...