The
United States Department of Agriculture has approved commercial production of a
new potato variety that is genetically modified to resist bruising, and when
cooking, produces less of a suspected human carcinogen found to cause cancer in
animals.
The
potato has been developed by geneticists and plant breeders working for J.R.
Simplot Company at Boise, Idaho.
Simplot
is a major supplier of french fries, hash browns, and other potato products for
restaurant chains such as McDonald's.
So
far the company has not applied for Canadian government approvals
to grow the new variety.
It has a potato processing plant in Portage la Prairie,
Manitoba which has an annual capacity of more than 300 million pounds (135
million kilos) of frozen french fries and formed potato products.
The plant began operations in 2003, and is among the most
efficient facilities of its kind in the world.
It was built to accommodate future expansion that could
double its initial capacity.
The Portage plant serves large quick-service-restaurant
chains and other U.S. customers in the East, Southeast, and Midwest.
