The Average American Will Eat 30 Pounds Of French Fries – Every Year!

National French Fry Day on July 12th recognizes a staple food on menus across the country. It comes in so many different cuts and styles, there’s a favorite for everyone to enjoy!

• 1781 – French Fries are one of many foods whose name is most misleading, as the origins of this fat-fried food seem to be in Belgium. The story of their creation can be found in a family manuscript dated 1781, which reveals that potatoes were originally cut into the shape of fish and served instead of the fish normally caught in a series of small villages in Belgium. It seems the river had frozen over and the fish they normally caught and fried were unable to be caught.
• 1802 – The first occurrence of French fries in America was when Thomas Jefferson had “potatoes served in the French manner” at a White House dinner in 1802.
• 1850s – Between the 1850s and 1930s, French fries were known more illustratively as “French fried potatoes” in America.
• 1856 – The expression “French Fried Potatoes” first occurs in print in English in the 1856 work Cookery for Maids of All Work by E. Warren.
• 1859 -Charles Dickens, who was surprisingly something of a 17th-century “foodie,” was the first author to pen french fries into literature. Dickens wrote about dozens of breakfast foods, dinner plates, and pints of beer, and included an allusion to french fries in his 1859 novel “A Tale of Two Cities.” It was the best of fries, it was the worst of fries… Dickens described the dish we now know as fries as, “husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil.”
• 1918 – It is believed by some that the term “French” was introduced to the potatoes when the American soldiers arrived in Belgium during World War I and consequently tasted Belgian fries. Since French was the official language of the Belgian Army at that time, it is possible the American soldiers began calling the fried potatoes “French” fries.
• 1930s – Around the 1930s, everybody dropped the “potatoes” on the end and just called them French fries.
• 1940 – The first McDonald’s opens in San Bernardino, California, selling hamburgers, sodas, milkshakes, and French fries.
• 1982 – the year when John Calvi wrote an ode to French fries.
• 1990 – McDonald’s starts cooking their French fries in vegetable oil.
• In Belgium, people prefer to eat French fries with cooked mussels or with a fried egg on top.
• In England, they are referred to as “chips.” Fish and chips is one of the most popular meals in Great Britain.
• In the Middle East, fries are wrapped in pita bread with chicken, and in France, they are served with grilled steak.
• Canadians serve up poutine, a dish consisting of french fries and cheese curds, topped with brown gravy!
• French fries are one of the most popular side dishes in the world.
• Though French fries were invented in Europe, the potatoes, from which they are made, originated in the Americas and were imported.
• Leaving the potato skin on French fries leaves in important vitamins that are lost if the skins are peeled away.
• A medium-sized potato packs a mere 150 calories or so, is fat-free and is a great source of complex carbohydrates, a major source of the body’s energy. An equivalent serving of fries contains over 500 calories, over 30 percent of which come from fat, and over a dozen additives carefully calibrated to make fries taste yummy.
• North Americans refer to any elongated pieces of fried potatoes as fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of fried potatoes are often called fries to distinguish them from the more thickly cut strips called chips.
• McDonald’s uses about 7% of the potatoes grown in the United States for its French fries. They sell more than 1/3 of all the French fries sold in restaurants in the U.S. each year.
• To burn off the calories in a medium order of McDonald’s French fries, you would need to do: 58 minutes of cycling, 90 minutes of bowling, or 47 minutes of high-impact aerobics.
• Sweet potatoes aren’t potatoes. They are swollen roots and belong to the same family as Morning Glories. But they sure do make the best French fries!
• There is a museum dedicated to French fries called the Friet Museum in Belgium.
• The European Space Agency did a study to see how fries would be in space. As the gravity gets stronger, the fries get crispier. But since the gravity in space is less, the fries would be soggy and gross. Even though they are gross with less gravity, they were also the first vegetable grown in space because of NASA.
• Almost ¼ of all potatoes in America are consumed as French fries. According to National Geographic, the average American eats nearly 30 pounds of french fries each year.
• Belgians, per capita, consume a third more French fries than Americans.  And their dip/sauce of choice is mayonnaise-based.
• The USDA considers frozen fries as “vegetables,” which is why you might find them in the frozen vegetable aisle at the grocery store.
• The world’s largest ‘French Fry Feed’ is in North Dakota.   A French Fry Feed is an event wherein huge swarms of people consume french fries simultaneously. The largest in the world, the Potato Bowl, takes place in Grand Forks, North Dakota. According to their website, up to 10,000 people attend each year, which is even better attendance than some of the best food festivals in America.
• There are actual fry-tasting rooms at the McDonald’s headquarters in Illinois.
• Burger King’s French fries (and probably McDonald’s too) are sprayed with a sugar solution just before being packaged and shipped to the various franchise locations. This produces a golden color through the caramelization of the sugar when it is fried.
• The town of Florenceville-Bristol, New Brunswick, headquarters of McCain Foods, calls itself “the French fry capital of the world” and also hosts a museum about potatoes called “Potato World”. It is also one of the world’s largest manufacturers of frozen french fries and other potato specialties.
• 165 pounds – the amount of fried potatoes consumed in Belgium annually by every person.
• 30 pounds – the amount of potato fries consumed by the average American every year.
• ⅓ – the number of the world’s fries produced by McCain Foods.
• 90 seconds – the time vending machines in Belgian grocery stores take to fry potatoes and push them out.
• 20 – the ingredients used in McDonald’s’ famous fries recipe.
• 2-4 – the age of children at which fried potatoes are their highest consumed vegetable.
• 15 – the types of French fries available.
• Steak fries have lower fat than regular-cut French fries.
• Survey Data gathered by a top San Francisco Marketing Agency (survey of 1,000 Americans)
  • AMERICA’S ULTIMATE RANKING OF FAST FOOD FRIES#1: McDonalds (35%)
    #2: Chick-fil-A (13%)
    #3: Five Guys (12%)
    #4: Wendys (11%)
    #5: Arbys (11%)
    #6: Burger King (7%)
    #7: In n Out (4%)
    #8: Sonic (3%)
    #9: Shake Shack (3%)
    #10: Carls Jr. (2%)WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE STYLE OF FRIES?
    #1: Regular (21%)
    #2: Curly (20%)
    #3: Steak-cut (14%)
    #4: Crinkle (13%)
    #5: Waffle (13%)
    #6: Wedges (7%)

    WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CONDIMENT TO PUT ON FRIES?
    #1: Ketchup (55%)
    #2: Ranch (15%)
    #3: Cheese sauce (8%)
    #4: Barbecue sauce (7%)
    #5: Mayo (4%)

    FRIES DIPPED IN MILKSHAKES, YES OR NO?
    #1: No, that’s gross (33%)
    #2: Yes, I love it (21%)

Sources:

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