Why The Fries Taste Good

By: Damaris Ahumada

Daniel Tsai
Nhi Nguyen
 J.R. Simplot
● He perfected a method to dehydrate potatoes and became a main supplier of
food to soldiers during WWII.
● He used his money to keep growing his industry.
● He invested a lot in frozen food technology which payed off.
● J.R. found a way to make frozen french fries taste as good as fresh ones.
● McDonald’s began to sell his fries and he soon sold them to dozens of other
chains.
● He changed the way Americans eat.
● He was one of the richest men in US history.
● He was very involved in small companies and his own community. He owned
land that is bigger than Delaware
 Simplot Plant
● A small facility for industry standards
● Built in the late 1950’s

● Processes about 1,000,000

pounds of potatoes a day
● Founded by J.R. Simplot

● Main supplier of McDonald’s

french fries
● Processes and distributes many
different things in addition to potatoes
 Flavor
● “The aroma of a food can be
responsible for as much as 90 percent
of its flavor.” (Schlosser 122)
● The flavors or food that we ate as kids fill
us with happiness which is why they are
called comfort foods

● Flavor has controlled the actions

of humans throughout history
● The flavor industry makes
around 1.4 billion dollars a
year
● Flavor is just the smell of gases that
the food we ate releases as we put it
in our mouths
 Natural Flavor
● Used by almost all food companies ● Made by “flavorists” in a
lab

● In order to give a food its taste,

● About 10,000 new flavors they must consider its “mouthfeel”
are introduced annually

● “Consumers prefer to see natural

flavors on a label, out of belief that
● The most advances in flavor manufacturing they are healthier”(Schlosser 126).
are now occurring in the field of
biotechnology
● Natural flavor isn’t necessarily healthier than
artificial flavor since they are made from the
same material.
 French Fries
● Simplot offered McDonald’s a different type of fries:
frozen fries. This saved a lot of money and eliminated
the jobs of peeling and cutting the potatoes.
● “French fries were popularized in the United States by
World War I veterans who’d enjoyed them in Europe
and by the drive-in restaurants that subsequently arose
in the 1930’s and 1940’s”(Schlosser 114).
● Simplot started selling
his frozen french fries to
many other restaurants.
● People did not notice the difference in the
fries.
 French Fries (continued)
● French fries are one of the most consumed food products.
A typical American will consume around 30 pounds of
french fries a year.
● The only reason McDonald's fries taste
better than some other fries is because
of the oil that is used to cook them.

● Many companies refuse to say

what the formulas in their
flavor are in order to protect
their reputation.
 Farmers at Risk
● Large companies are taking everything
from the small farmers

● “Over the past twenty-five years, Idaho has lost about half of
its potato farmers. During the same period, the amount of land
devoted to potatoes has increased”(Schlosser 118).
● Potato farmers have to come together to
fight against the large corporations

● American farmers are the most

productive on Earth

● There are two million farmers and

ranchers feeding 275 million consumers.
 Millions and Millions of Fries
● F. Gilbert Lamb invented the Lamb Water
Gun Knife which uses a high-pressure
hose to shoot potatoes at a speed of 117
feet per second through a grid of
sharpened steel blades which make the
perfect sized french fry.
● Tractors carry potatoes that have just
been harvested and dump them into
spinning rods that allow small potatoes,
rocks, and dirt fall to the ground.
● The water systems clean and sort the
potatoes by size.
● Then, conveyor belts blast the potatoes
with steam and the boiled water under
their skins explode the skin off. Then,
they are shot with the Lamb Water Gun
Knife.
● After, they are sprayed with hot water
● and put in boiling oil. They are then
packaged and sen t out.