Additional Testing in National Fry Processing Trial

Additional Testing In National Fry Processing Trial

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the U.S. Potato Update.

The United States Potato Board conducts National Fry Processing Trials on new-yet-to-be-named potato varieties to determine which new varieties will match or exceed the high standards set by industry stakeholders: mainly producers, processors and consumers. Now an additional test has been conducted to determine if the new varieties have what it takes to become fries.

David Parish, owner and CEO of AIS Consulting, explains why the industry values the Quick Serve Restaurant analysis, that measures the new varieties against the fry standards needed by restaurants like McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s.

Parish: “The importance of doing the QSR testing is that any company in the industry realizes that at the end of the day they need to sell their product an end-consumer. Whether it be in the chip industry, the table industry, the french fry industry they know a consumer eventually got to buy it. So it is a really important part of any variety testing, to make sure that end-consumer gets a product that they really want to buy.”

Parish says that the NFPT provided the needed material for a processor to conduct the QSR tests and then share the results with the entire industry. He mentions that although it is very difficult to find successful new varieties that meet the needed QSR requirements, there were some positive results with two or three varieties that looked pretty promising.

This was the U.S. Potato Update brought to you by the United States Potato Board, maximizing return on grower investment. I’m KayDee Gilkey on the Northwest Ag Information Network.