Potato News from Canada

Several construction workers could be found tearing down McCain Foods’s old french fry plant earlier this week. The company will open its new $65-million plant in Florenceville during the week of June 30, which is nearly two months ahead of schedule. ...

Trans fats: We've been told that they're worse for our hearts than saturated animal fats. Now, as consumers increasingly turn to food that's trans-fat-free and manufacturers pull them from more and more processed foods, comes a twist. Some trans fats,...

World food prices should stay high because of rising energy costs and the use of biofuels, but they may ease after stocks are replenished, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday. Senior officials from the U.N. agency, testifying b...

On Thursday morning, officials at McCain Foods Ltd., announced it would move its marketing department  to Toronto, Ont.. The move will impact more than 20 jobs at the Florenceville plant, which employs 1,000 people in the region. A marketing departm...

The Prince Edward Island Potato Board is donating 18,000 kilogram of top-quality spuds to the Greater Boston Food Bank. The donation is part of International Year of the Potato. Ivan Noonan, a board spokesman, says Boston is a very important market f...

Total Canadian oilseed production during 2008/2009 is forecast to increase to 12.5 MMT from 11.5 million metric tons produced a year earlier. This increase is due to an 8% increase in canola production and a 12% increase in soybean production.Acreage i...

Students in Ontario will be getting healthier because the food and beverages sold in schools will need to be free of trans fat.Levels of obesity among young Canadian children have nearly tripled over the last 25 years. Providing healthier options and ...

Promoting workplace safety at her dad's workplace – McCain Foods in Florenceville – has earned a 13-year-old Perth-Andover student a trip to the American capital and $1,000. Meghan Baker, a Grade 8 student at Perth-Andover Middle School, won first pla...

Piper's love of potato farming was known to all in the industry, and it led him to work with Potatoes New Brunswick. Executive director Robert Gareau said Piper spent six years with Potatoes NB, five of which he served on the executive as treasurer, v...

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday unleashed a proposed consumer safety bill that could force food manufacturers in the country to improve tracking of suppliers and processes. Spurred on by a crisis in consumer confidence last year follo...

The McCain Foods (Canada) potato processing plant in Florenceville should resume operation today, and the prepared foods facility next week, the company says. The plant shut down when a portion of a roof over a cold storage facility collapsed at about...

French-fries manufacturer Cavendish Farms and The Culinary Institute of Canada are teaming up to build a new research kitchen in Charlottetown. The $4-million kitchen will use the culinary resources of the institute and the market expertise of Cavendi...

McCain Foods officials are searching for the cause of a partial roof collapse at the Florenceville plant over the weekend. On Saturday afternoon, the roof over a cold storage unit at the plant crumbled into the facility, said Calla Farn, McCains' dir...

The foodservice industry’s share of the total food dollar dipped to 39.4% in 2007 from 39.7% in 2006 due to weakness in Central and Atlantic Canada.   Since 2000, the foodservice industry’s market share has slowly eroded from 40.5% – the result of slo...

The closure of the Humpty Dumpty potato-chip plant in Summerside has P.E.I. Development Minister Richard Brown concerned about the province's investment there. The plant's 36 employees were told this week they'd be out of work by May. When it opened ...

Like his roots, Wallace McCain is extremely humble when asked about being only the fifth Canadian to receive a prestigious American award for rags-to-riches business success.

The amount of reducing sugars in the potato are responsible for the colour formation of fried products. So if potatoes are too high in reducing sugars, they are not suitable for processing.

Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's medical officer of health, is calling on Canadian politicians to address the country's growing obesity rate by banning junk food advertising to children under 13. Last week, acting on a recommendation by Dr. McKeown, the To...