Fryeburg farm putting a value on potatoes.

From: The Portland Press Herald, January 31, 2016 Sub-title: Green Thumb Farms sells potatoes in liquid and solid form on a national level. Farmer Don Thibodeau grew up in Aroostook County in the era when a potato was vaunted, but hardly pampered. The packaging was a brown paper bag. If there was value being added, it was at home and involved sour cream and butter. Today he grows potatoes on 725 of his 2,400 acres at Green Thumb Farms in Fryeburg, and adds value like nobody’s business. Through Maine Distilleries,...
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Side Delights® Steamables Keep Heating Up The Category

America’s #1 selling brand of microwaveable potato bags adds a sure-fire winner! With time-pressed consumers continuing to clamor for ever-more convenient ways to enjoy fresh foods, value-added produce items responded – accounting for fully 84% of the incremental sales dollars in produce this past year per FMI’s The Power of Produce 2015. In fact, while unprepared vegetables inched ahead by just 0.1%, value-added vegetables jumped up 4.5% during the same period to command a 22.3% share of all fresh vegetable dollar sales. The value-added products attracting the most attention in...
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New Study Shows Side Delights® Steamables Really Heating Up Retail Sales

Nielsen research confirms that category-leading brand is attracting desirable shoppers and driving bigger baskets. A new study on the microwaveable/steamable fresh potato segment conducted by Nielsen Perishables Group highlights the impact that Side Delights® Steamables have on retailer sales and identifies the desirable shopper groups that the growing brand is attracting. Side Delights® Steamables are the leading brand in the steamable segment, with 54.4% of all microwaveable bag volume measured by Nielsen and accounting for half of all dollar sales in the segment. During the 52 week period ending 6/27/15,...
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FRESH SOLUTIONS NETWORK NAMED AS A FINALIST FOR PMA IMPACT AWARD IN PACKAGING

Side Delights® Roastables product line to compete in PMA’s Product Impact Award Finals September 28, 2015 – For the second year running, Fresh Solutions Network has been named as a finalist in the PMA Impact Awards for Excellence in Packaging for their innovation and creative excellence with the Side Delights® Roastables potato product line. The Produce Marketing Association reported that 57 companies submitted 71 entries. The Impact Award Committee reviewed each entry and has selected twenty packaging submissions as finalists for 2015. According to Kathleen Triou, President & CEO for Fresh Solutions Network, “the...
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FRESH SOLUTIONS NETWORK KICKS OFF SPUD ZONE II AT PMA FRESH SUMMIT

New Side Delights® Roastables Line Debuts Alongside Expanded Convenience and Gourmet Product Lines at booth #3147 Fresh Solutions Network is lining up to kickoff their best season ever, starting with hosting Spud Zone II at PMA Fresh Summit to be held October 23-25 in Atlanta, GA. Attendees can expect to see a full roster of innovative new products as well as meeting the Fresh Solutions Network team and learning about the marketing programs available to support FSN’s retail and foodservice customers during the year ahead. One of the strongest contenders for...
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Busting Five More Myths about Potatoes

With the start of fall comes the start of the potato harvest, the busiest time of year for potato growers. Since I busted several potato nutrition myths earlier this year, this seemed like a good time to return and address some other misperceptions so you can get beyond the myths and enjoy nutritious and delicious potatoes more often this harvest season and all year round. MYTH #1. MOST PEOPLE EAT TOO MANY POTATOES. Contrary to popular belief, the consumption of potatoes in all forms is well within current food intake...
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Small Potatoes Are Bigger Than Ever, And Fresh Solutions Network Is Ready!

Side Delights® Gourmet Petite brand announces new offerings and expanded        packaging options. San Francisco, CA (September 3, 2015) – Small potatoes are bigger than ever! Nielsen FreshFacts reports that Petite potatoes posted double-digit growth versus the prior year*, and now account for 11.1% of fresh potato category dollars at retail. Side DelightsÒ Gourmet Petites have been a standout in this red-hot segment since the moment they were first introduced, earning the coveted PMA Impact Award for Excellence in Packaging in 2014 on their way to racking up record sales. In response...
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Purple Potatoes May Help in Fight Against Bowel Cancer, Study Finds

Naturally purple-fleshed potatoes may aid in killing bowel cancer stem cells, according to a team of international researchers who found that compounds in the vegetables suppressed the spread of bowel cancer tumours.  The research, conducted from researchers at Penn State and the University of Colorado in the U.S., and recently published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, found the baked flesh of purple potatoes suppressed the growth of bowel cancer in petri dishes and in mice by targeting the cancer’s stem cells. A release by Australian peak vegetable industry body Ausveg...
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The Key To A Gluten-Free Breakfast Sandwich: POTATOES!

The breakfast sandwich has become a staple of on-the-go mornings. In fact, convenient and high-protein breakfast dishes are rising in popularity, according to a new study from Nielsen Perishables Group. But if you’re following a gluten-free diet or low-fat diet, buns, biscuits, English muffins and croissants commonly used in breakfast sandwiches might be off the menu for you. There’s good news: potatoes can fit right in as the base of a quick, high-protein, low-fat and totally gluten-free breakfast sandwich. It’s easy to make Hash Brown Sliders with pre-shredded hash browns...
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Delivering the Digital Destination that Retailers Deserve

Fresh Solutions Network’s website re-launch raises the bar for entire industry. In an era when Google has seemingly made finding the answer to any question just a few clicks away, it is often surprisingly frustrating for retailers and foodservice operators to locate the information they need about the products they purchase and the operators who supply them. That is why Fresh Solutions Network (FSN) has reimagined their entire online domain to create a single, comprehensive online resource housing all the information that existing and potential customers would likely ever want to...
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