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113 “gold dust”: Interview with J. R. Simplot.
“the Golden Age of Food Processing”: Levenstein’s chapter on the postwar era is entitled “The Golden Age of Food Processing: Miracle Whip Über Alles,” in Levenstein, Paradox of Plenty, pp. 104–18.
114 “Potato salad from a package!”: Quoted ibid.
tableside microwave ovens: Cited ibid., p. 128.
Although Thomas Jefferson had brought the Parisian recipe: See “The French Fries,” a chapter in Elizabeth Rozin’s The Primal Cheeseburger (New York: Penguin Books, 1994), pp. 133–52.
“That’s a helluva thing”: Simplot interview.
“The french fry [was]… almost sacrosanct”: Kroc, Grinding It Out, p. 10.
115 thinly sliced Russet Burbanks in special fryers: See Love, Behind the Arches, p. 123.
about 175 different local suppliers: Ibid., p. 329.
the typical American ate eighty-one pounds: The figures on fresh potato and french fry consumption come from the USDA Economic Research Service.
Ninety percent of those fries: Potato statistics, USDA Economic Research Service.
the most widely sold foodservice item: Cited in Lisa Bocchino, “Frozen Potato Products,” ID: The Voice of Foodservice Distribution, January 1995.
116 bigger than the state of Delaware: Delaware has about 1.6 million acres of land.
“It’s big and it’s real”: Simplot interview.
the J. R. Simplot Company supplies the majority: Interview with Fred Zerza.
117 Simplot, Lamb Weston, and McCain now controclass="underline" This is a conservative estimate, based on discussions with a variety of industry sources.
a $70 million advertising campaign: See Constance L. Hays, “Burger King Campaign Is Promoting New Fries,” New York Times, December 11, 1997.
Idaho’s potato output surpassed Maine’s: Potato Statistics, Economic Research Service, USDA.
117 Since 1980, the tonnage of potatoes grown in Idaho: Figures for 1980 courtesy of Paul Patterson; 1999 figures from the National Agricultural Statistical Service.
Out of every $1.50 spent: A large order of fries weighs about one-quarter of a pound. It takes about a half pound of fresh potatoes to make a quarter pound of fries. A typical farm price for fresh processing potatoes is $4 to $5 per hundredweight — or 4 to 5 cents a pound.
It costs about $1,500 an acre: Interview with Paul Patterson.
118 needs to receive about $5 per hundredweight: Ibid.
as low as $1.50 per hundredweight: Ibid.
Idaho has lost about half: Interview with Bert Moulton.
the amount of land devoted to potatoes: Idaho Agricultural Statistics Service.
119 roughly 1,100 potato farmers: Bert Moulton estimates there are between 1,000 and 1,200; Don Gehrhardt, at the Idaho Agricultural Statistics Service, believes there are about 1,100.
120 America’s agricultural economy now resembles: See Heffernan, “Consolidation in the Food and Agricultural System,” p. 1.
The taste of McDonald’s french fries: Since the publication of Fast Food Nation, the McDonald’s Corporation has been more forthcoming about the ingredients in their fries. For the origins of the new policy, see pages 278–80 of the Afterword.
James Beard loved McDonald’s fries: See Elizabeth Mehren, “From Whisks to Molds, James Beard’s Personal Possessions to Be Auctioned,” Los Angeles Times, September 12, 1985.
The taste of a fast food fry is largely determined: See Olivia Wu, “Fats and Oils in a New Light,” Restaurants and Institutions, January 15, 1997; and Candy Sagon, “Fry, Fry Again: The Secret of Great French Fries? Frying and more Frying,” Washington Post, July 9, 1997.
more saturated beef fat per ounce: A small McDonald’s hamburger weighed 102 grams and had 3.6 grams of saturated fat; a small order of fries weighed 68 grams and had 5.05 grams of saturated fat. See “Where’s the Fat,” USA Today, April 5, 1990; Marian Burros, “The Slimming of Fat Fast Food,” New York Times, July 25, 1990; and Michael F. Jacobson and Sarah Fritscher, The Completely Revised and Updated Fast-Food Guide (New York: Workman Publishing, 1991).
A look at the ingredients now used: See “McDonald’s Nutrition Facts,” McDonald’s Corporation, July 1997.
About 90 percent of the money that Americans spend on food: See “Personal Consumption Expenditures Table, 1999,” Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce.
the area produces about two-thirds of the flavor additives: Cited in Joyce Jones, “Labs Conjure Up Fragrances and Flavors to Add Allure,” New York Times, December 26, 1993.
122 six of the ten best-selling fine perfumes… the smell of Estée Lauder’s Beautifuclass="underline" Interview with Nancy Ciancaglini, International Flavors & Fragrances.
The aroma of a food can be responsible: Cited in Ruth Sambrook, “Do You Smell What I Smell? The Science of Smell and Taste,” Institute of Food Research, March 1999.