News On French Fries and Potato Specialties from Idaho

The blog FrankenFoodFacts recently published a review of the Innate potato of Simplot Plant Sciences. This blog by Layla Katiraee, who holds a Ph.D. in molecular genetics and is a senior scientist at a biotech company, offers the most insightful review of the Innate Potato PotatoPro has seen so far.

Lamb Weston now provides restaurant operators in North America with a tool to find out where the potatoes that become their fries originated and then share that information with their customers.

The 13 major potato States held 130 million cwt of potatoes in storage April 1, 2015, up 9 percent from April 2014.

Southern Idaho Potato Cooperative growers have agreed to a contract that slightly reduces potato prices but requires processors to accept at least 90 percent of their 2014 acreages with individual farms.

The first line of J.R. Simplot Co.'s genetically modified potatoes has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration as safe for human consumption. The voluntary FDA safety review found that the potatoes are as safe and nutritious as conventional potatoes.

Port disruptions on the West Coast due to labor contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) are hurting Idaho agriculture and Idaho’s exporters.

The 13 major US potato States held 263 million cwt of potatoes in storage December 1, 2014, down 3 percent from 2 years
ago.

If the Innate GMO potato is going to take off, depends on Simplot winning over three major factions, Farmers, big buyers such as McDonald's and the Consumer

A potato genetically engineered to reduce the amounts of a potentially harmful ingredient in French fries and potato chips has been approved for commercial planting, the Department of Agriculture announced on Friday.

The Simplot potato processing plant in Nampa will again stay open longer than anticipated.

The J.R. Simplot Co. is decommissioning its potato-processing plant in Aberdeen in Bingham County. Simplot says all processing work there ended over the Labor Day weekend.

The J.R. Simplot plant in Aberdeen is still up and running, after it was scheduled to officially close its doors on July 31, but a delay in the start-up of the production in the new Caldwell plant has it rescheduled to close Sept. 2.

J.R. Simplot Co.'s Idaho potato processing plants in Aberdeen and Nampa, which were scheduled to be closed this spring, will remain open throughout August due to increased demand.

A delay in a $100 million expansion project for McCain Foods USA in Burley, Idaho has area potato growers worried about the status of their contracts to sell produce to the company.

Simplot's Safety Days initiative was recently recognized by McDonald’s Corporation as demonstrating best practices in the “Community Impact” section of the company’s Sustainable Supply awards.

Idaho potato farmers who sell to McCain Foods have agreed to a contract that maintains roughly the same pricing as last season, said Dan Hargraves, who negotiated on their behalf as executive director of Southern Idaho Potato Cooperative.

A number of southwestern Idaho communities are bracing for the planned closure of three Simplot plants.

McCain Foods' Aug. 7 announcement that it will invest more than $100 million to expand its Burley potato processing plant was exciting news to Idaho potato farmers.