New Potatoes: Um, Not So Much

New Potatoes: Um, Not So Much

Are Supermarkets Selling 7 Month Old New Potatoes?

Just how “new” are those “new potatoes” that you are being offered at local supermarkets? Customers expect words such as “new” and “fresh” to have real meaning when they are used to describe food products. Apparently several major supermarkets are stretching the limits when it comes to “truth in advertising”.

An investigation has proven that supermarkets are selling 7 month old new potatoes. It boggles the mind that the words old and new are both being used to describe this produce.
Although the supermarkets are insisting in calling them “new potatoes” there is proof that the produce was harvested during the 2012 fall season. This means that the “new potatoes” being sold during the spring of 2013 were actually harvested and sent to market in August of 2012.

There are at least 24 instances where consumers have been sold 7 month old potatoes under the guise that these were “new potatoes”. To qualify as a new potato the produce must be harvested early in the growing season. New potatoes are also typically smaller than mature specimens. If you are going to stretch the use of semantics it does allow these “shelf aged” potatoes to be called “new” as long as they were small and had been harvested early.

To remedy the situation the potato industry has now placed new guidelines in effect. If potatoes are going to be” sold as “new” then they must be harvested early; be small in size; be full of natural flavor and also have a thin outer peel that can be removed by gently rubbing the skin with a finger.

On The Web:

Supermarkets duping customers by selling ‘new potatoes’ that are actually seven months old
http://www.capitalbay.com/latest-news/370354-supermarkets-duping-customers-by-selling-new-potatoes-that-are-actually-seven-months-old.html