The Washington Monthly

June 15, 2004

FRENCH FRIES AND KETCHUP....Back in Reagan's day ketchup was declared a vegetable. Today it's battered french fries:

The Frozen Potato Products Institute appealed to the USDA in 2000 to change its definition of fresh produce...to include batter-coated, frozen French fries, arguing that rolling potato slices in a starch coating, frying them and freezing them is the equivalent of waxing a cucumber or sweetening a strawberry.

...."I find it pretty outrageous, really," said [Chicago attorney Tim] Elliott, who argued that the Batter-Coating Rule is so vague that chocolate-covered cherries, packed in a candy box, would qualify as fresh fruit.

Seems to me it's Elliot who's being outrageous here. Why shouldn't a chocolate covered cherry count as fresh fruit?

Actually, what's odd about this little story isn't really the battering part — which seems to be the key industry complaint — but the potato part. Since when are potatoes a vegetable?

—Kevin Drum 12:14 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (0)

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