Potato News from Northern America

The chair of the P.E.I. potato processing committee says growers are content to have reached a deal with Cavendish Farms for this year.Scott Howatt said Thursday growers accepted the first offer as they face what appears to be another difficult year.“W...

Costco Wholesale Corp. here said yesterday consumer packaged goods manufacturers are starting to reduce prices, possibly in reaction to rising private-label sales. According to Richard A. Galanti, executive vice president and chief financial officer, ...

Torrential rains that nearly destroyed north Florida’s potato crop shouldn’t seriously disrupt the U.S. spring potato deal. A week of late May heavy rains flooded fields with 27 inches of rain and destroyed up to 70% of the deal’s potatoes. Tony Rusko...

According to Hank Cardello, food industry expert and author of Stuffed: An Insider’s Look at Who’s REALLY Making America Fat, the same problems that have menaced the Detroit auto industry could soon plague the food industry. If food processors don’t wa...

Burger King Corp.(NYSE:BKC) announced today that it is enhancing its BK® Kids Meal menu with offerings that meet its stringent nutrition criteria for advertised Kids Meals, as part of the company’s commitment to its BK Positive StepsSM program. With th...

McDonald's Corp. expects to carry on in successfully besting the recession, the restaurant giant's chief executive told shareholders Wednesday, even as some fast-food chains have shown recent signs of weakness."Our momentum is continuing in 2009,&...

Columbia/Okura’s A-Series robotic palletizers provide the ideal solution for the demands of today’s high capacity potato packers. They use an end effector ('robot hand') designed specifically to handle the inconsistency of potato bags,.

It was a trip to the Wisconsin State Fair that sparked two Burlington-born sisters into opening a potato bar restaurant in their home town. Micki Gebel couldn’t help but notice the long lines that fairgoers were willing to wait in just for the taste of...

Combine Oprah Winfrey's endorsement with a chicken giveaway and what do you get? For KFC, the result was an avalanche of attention, some positive, some negative, for its national rollout of Kentucky Grilled Chicken. The frenzy briefly overwhelmed the ...

The latest Consumer Price Index from the federal government showed that price inflation rose faster for food away from home as compared with food at home, a trend that could push more consumers away from restaurants and toward grocery stores. New data...

A week of heavy rains has caused what one Putnam County potato grower called a tri-county disaster."We had 13 inches of rain by noon Wednesday,"said Crescent City grower Joey Froehlich."It's a disaster - it's too wet and I think people w...

Though weight and health are major issues in today’s society, Mintel sees lagging interest in portion-controlled packaging. Only one in seven adults (14%) currently buy pre-measured packs, and the number one reason they do is convenience. Weight mana...

Natural and eco-friendly offerings continue to draw operators' attention as demonstrated by the products showcased in the Organic &Natural and Green Restaurant Products pavilions at the 2009 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel S...

There is something about the Greenlandic earth that is preventing fungus diseases like mould from attacking and destroying Greenlandic potatoes. This has piqued the interest of Danish researchers, reports Politiken Søndag newspaper. ‘If we can identif...

This year's NRA show started with a bang and continued to roll through this weekend, as the foodservice industry gathered to see the latest products, hear from industry leaders and seek out best business practices.Sunday's keynote panel presentation hi...

When waste byproducts are recycled and reused, it is always good for the environment. That means potato product producers in Portage la Prairie are doing some good things for the environment. Simplot Canada Ltd. in Portage la Prairie goes through a...

The 13 major US potato States held 115 million cwt of potatoes in storage April 1, 2009, down 9 percent from a year ago and 5 percent below April 1, 2007. Potatoes in storage accounted for 31 percent of the 2008 fall storage States' production, slight...

US Supermarket industry sales increased 5.2 percent in 2008, and identical-store sales rose 4.5 percent, but these gains were offset by the 5.7 percent food-at-home inflation rate last year, according to the 2009 Food Retailing Industry Speaks: Annual ...