Potatoes: a sugar substitute - Ingredient Technologies

Potatoes: A sugar substitute

Reed created the product on a whim in 1985 when his father, Le-Roy--then president of the National Potato Board--quipped about using potatoes in ice cream as a way of promoting the produce. Why not? Alan Reed said.PAUL BUSH, Senior Editor/Automation and Operations AnalystIn the frozen fruit bar segment, for example, United Brands' Chiquita fruit bars have vanished from all but the Midwest, Ocean Spray Cranberries has licensed its name to an ingredient supplier and Coca-Cola has sold its Minute Maid Juicee line.Not only has it promoted potatoes as Leroy Reed hoped, but it has brought national publicity to the 35-year-old dairy. Consumers call the dessert "spuds cream.""It's the same dichotomy you see when you go out to eat and someone asks for the dessert tray but uses Sweet n' Low in their coffee," notes Ann Buivid, product manager at General Foods, White Plains, N.Y.Although microwave desserts trade most heavily on convenience, many such new items incorporated selling points that answered consumption trends favoring health and diet as well as portion control. This cross-trending typified many other items.Keep your eyes open as more potatoes get served after dinner instead of with dinner. Who'd ever thought, potatoes for dessert!Next Step (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.) approached health-conscious consumers from a different angle. It used an all natural sweetener in R.W. Frookie "good for you" cookie varieties. Pronatec International (Peterborough, N.H.) also used the same 100% organically grown evaporated sugar cane juice to make gourmet Chocanat Chips, released in 12-oz. consumer packs in early 1989."There were some 700 SKUs introduced in the last two years. That's confusing to consumers and contributes to less-than-productive sales levels for manufacturers," says Terry McGrath, assistant vice president of marketing for Isaly Klondike Co., Clearwater, Fla. "As a result, manufacturers have had to reevaluate their new product plans. I don't think the number of successful new products will be reduced, but the number of gratuitous line extensions designed to grab shelf space will be cut," he says.Quarts of the product are now available in more than 200 stores in seven states--Idaho and parts of Georgia, Florida, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and California--in supermarkets and dipping stores bearing the Al & Reeds name (the name is a play on that of company president Alan Reed).Other new shapes included realistic Dominos cookies and Double Dominos sandwiches from Keebler (Elmhurst, Ill.) in chocolate and graham recipes, Nabisco Brands' bite-size Teddy Grahams, plus shortbread bears, dogs, rabbits, turtles and roosters from Beautiful Food in Glenview, Ill.While many processors are turning to aspartame to let consumers have their dairy desserts and their diet, too, an Idaho ice cream maker has found a sugar substitute closer to home: potatoes, of course.On the national level, that has put Dole Packaged Foods, San Francisco, in a good position. The company says it has achieved a 28 percent share of the frozen juice bar segment and hopes to improve that with this year's new flavor introductions. It has added a Pine-Orange Banana flavor to its Fruit'N Juice bar line and Strawberry-Banana to its Fruit'N Yogurt Bars. Both bars contain 60 calories each and are being marketed to health-conscious consumers as "Good for You" products.

PHOTO : Al & Reed's All Natural Ice Cream is made with fresh cream, skimmed milk, potato flakes, apple concentrate, vanilla, natural flavorings, locust bean gum and a fructose sweetener.