Of course, McDonald's makes the best fries. They taste good (all ingredients not clearly stated), are consistent (careful control of manufacturing), are served hot (small batches in the fryer), and are surprisingly long--a 10 cm specimen is typical. The downside, from the supplier viewpoint:
KIMBERLY, Idaho (AP)--From the fields of Idaho to tasting rooms in suburban Chicago, potato farmers, researchers and industry representatives are in the midst of an elusive hunt: finding a new spud for McDonald's french fries. A decade has passed since the fast-food giant last added a new U.S. potato variety to three others approved for its golden fries, something that both irks and motivates potato researchers who hope their progeny will be next. Because McDonald's buys more than 3.4 billion pounds of U.S. potatoes annually, it has the power to dictate whether a variety sprouts or winds up in the less-lucrative supermarket freezer's crinklecut bin--or worse yet, banished to become dehydrated taters. "It's a card game where McDonald's holds nine-tenths of the cards,'' said Jeanne Debons, the Potato Variety Management Institute's director. The institute was established in 2005 by the Idaho, Oregon and Washington potato commissions to handle licensing and royalties from new potatoes developed at universities and federal research facilities in the three states. An unwritten ambition: to get new potato varieties looked at by McDonald's. The company still relies on the Russet Burbank for many of its fries, even though this 130-year-old variety takes an eternity to mature, gulps water and falls victim to rots and other diseases, meaning farmers must douse it in chemicals. Socially conscious investors want McDonald's to help cut pesticides to protect the environment and farmworker health. Still, coming up with a spud stud is no mean feat. One of the last varieties McDonald's tested, the Premier Russet, has a pedigree that on paper resembles the lineage of a thoroughbred race horse, with ancestors like the buff-skinned Penobscot of Maine. The company decided it was an also-ran. "It has a smaller starch cell,'' Mitch Smith, McDonald's agricultural products director, recalls of tasters' conclusions about the Premier. "You get a smoother texture, it does affect the way it eats.'' Other U.S. potato-growing regions are also on the case. In July, researchers and industry reps meeting in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., home of the U.S. Potato Gene bank, discussed new sustainable varieties--to help "McDonald's to advertise that potatoes they serve are produced with less chemical and water input,'' said Chuck Brown, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A decade has passed since the fast-food giant last added a new U.S. potato variety to three others approved for its golden fries, something that both irks and motivates potato researchers who hope their progeny will be next.
Because McDonald's buys more than 3.4 billion pounds of U.S. potatoes annually, it has the power to dictate whether a variety sprouts or winds up in the less-lucrative supermarket freezer's crinklecut bin--or worse yet, banished to become dehydrated taters.
"It's a card game where McDonald's holds nine-tenths of the cards,'' said Jeanne Debons, the Potato Variety Management Institute's director.
The institute was established in 2005 by the Idaho, Oregon and Washington potato commissions to handle licensing and royalties from new potatoes developed at universities and federal research facilities in the three states.
An unwritten ambition: to get new potato varieties looked at by McDonald's.
The company still relies on the Russet Burbank for many of its fries, even though this 130-year-old variety takes an eternity to mature, gulps water and falls victim to rots and other diseases, meaning farmers must douse it in chemicals. Socially conscious investors want McDonald's to help cut pesticides to protect the environment and farmworker health.
Still, coming up with a spud stud is no mean feat. One of the last varieties McDonald's tested, the Premier Russet, has a pedigree that on paper resembles the lineage of a thoroughbred race horse, with ancestors like the buff-skinned Penobscot of Maine. The company decided it was an also-ran.
"It has a smaller starch cell,'' Mitch Smith, McDonald's agricultural products director, recalls of tasters' conclusions about the Premier. "You get a smoother texture, it does affect the way it eats.''
Other U.S. potato-growing regions are also on the case. In July, researchers and industry reps meeting in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., home of the U.S. Potato Gene bank, discussed new sustainable varieties--to help "McDonald's to advertise that potatoes they serve are produced with less chemical and water input,'' said Chuck Brown, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
They taste good (all ingredients not clearly stated), are consistent (careful control of manufacturing), are served hot (small batches in the fryer), and are surprisingly long--a 10 cm specimen is typical.
Personally, I don't like McDonalds french fries that much: at least where I ate it, it was always over-salted (which I assumed was an intentional trick to get consumers to buy more soft drinks). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
There was another incident that included dried blood as an additive, but the battery is going and so I must post this without the citation. Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
