Step aside, Idaho. Did you know that Michigan is the nation’s leading producer of potatoes for potato chips? Although Idaho leads the nation in potato production, potatoes are a $2.53 billion industry in Michigan, according to the Michigan Potato Industry Commission.
The state's focus on potatoes for chips is not a coincidence: researchers at Michigan State University have been working for more than 35 years to develop the perfect potato for potato chips. In recent years, they’ve been able to create five new varieties that store for longer in the winter without aging and resist diseases — even a specialty purple potato high in antioxidants.
David Douches is the director of MSU’s Potato Breeding and Genetics program, which developed the new Manistee, Mackinaw, Petoskey, Huron Chipper, and Blackberry varieties currently being turned into chips for consumers across the nation.
“Michigan has the climate, it has the soil, it has the water, and we also have amazingly great farmers that know how to grow and store those potatoes," Douches said.
Michigan is also one of the closest suppliers for East Coast-based potato chip brands, according to Douches.
Many of the genetic traits MSU selects for are related to developing potatoes that will store for longer periods without aging so they maintain their crispiness when fried up. Douches said the Mackinaw variety can store until early July, which means chip producers like Better Made in Detroit can use local potatoes for up to 11 months a year.
“Farmers can't control the weather,” Douches said. “And so what we've done over the years is look for potatoes that seem to have this toughness that can take the different environmental hits and still not physiologically fall off and are able to stay on and deliver a really nice potato chip.”
What makes potatoes bred for chipping different from the ones sold in grocery stores? Douches said higher starch content — which means less water in the potato — is a key factor for a crunchier and less oily chip. Not only can processors get more potato chips per pound, but they save money by using less oil.
“When you place them in the oil, the oil is displacing the water,” Douches said. “The more water that's in that potato, the more oil that that potentially can get absorbed. … You get, you can say, a healthier chip because there's maybe less oil in them, they're less greasy.”
MSU also selects for resistance to diseases like potato virus Y and late blight, which reduces the amount of pesticides farmers need to use to protect their crops. Douches said the process of selecting for those traits includes years of testing.
“When we make a cross, it literally takes over 10 years before we can name a variety,” he explained. “In the first year of a breeding cycle, we're producing 40-60,000 different seedlings a year. And every one of those could be a potential variety.”
But finding the right variety is like finding a needle in a haystack. Every year, MSU’s team looks at each one of the plants and narrows down which seedlings should continue in the process. After years of DNA testing and selecting for desired traits, potatoes are tested with farmers for three to four years.
Despite the time-consuming process, Douches said he wouldn’t trade his job for anything else. He’s wanted to become a vegetable breeder from a young age, and his career has taken him to countries like Bangladesh, Egypt, South Africa, and Peru.
"We have fun with the potato chips, that's our snack food, but we are also working on table varieties and we are also doing international work,” Douches said. “You really feel working in potato (breeding) that you're helping feed the world.”
MSU’s five new varieties are already being made into chips nationwide. Great Lakes Potato Chip Co. sells purple potato chips each November and December using MSU’s Blackberry variety. According to Douches, you can taste the fruits of his labor in the chips made by brands like Herr’s, Utz, and Cape Cod Potato Chips.
