UK: Mix and mash: how to maximise potato sales

They have been, and remain, a stalwart of the British diet; the shy, retiring star of the dinner plate. Potatoes do not tend to grab the foodie headlines like pasta, polenta and ‘chipped’ vegetables. And yet the humble spud remains the king of the carbs, immune to fads. For every portion of pasta, Britons consume three servings of potatoes; we are 10th in the world league table of potato consumption per head of the population. Put simply, restaurants, caterers and foodservice bosses are missing a golden, and lucrative, opportunity if they ignore the British appetite for potatoes. In fact, the growth in dining out, in particular at quick-service restaurants (QSRs), means the UK sector is in the midst of a spud boom. Servings of potatoes eaten out of home have increased by 10.7% year-on-year. Ron Hickey, catering and on-trade sales director at Bestway Wholesale, advises operators to boost sales by offering consumers the chance to “trade up” their meal and “premiumise” chips and wedges with toppings and dips. More