National Potato Council & United States Potato Board - Comment

RE:Docket No, FDA—2009—N—0393; Acrylamide in Food; Request for Comments and for Scientific Data and Information The National Potato Council (NPC) and the United States Potato Board (USPB) are pleased to submit these comments in response to the Acrylamide in Food; Request for Comments and for Scientific Data and Information (hereinafter referred to as “the request”), published in the Federal Register of August 26, 2009. NPC is the potato industry’s trade association and serves as the advocate for the economic well-being of U.S. potato growers on federal legislative, regulatory, environmental, and trade issues. USPB is the potato industry’s research and promotion board whose mission is to increase demand for potatoes and potato products through an integrated marketing program, thereby providing US producers with expanding markets for their production. The NPC and USPB are dedicated to providing consumers with healthy, nutritious and delicious potatoes and potato products. NPC and USPB commend the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its efforts to seek information and data to understand Acrylamide in food and learn how the food industry is employing mitigation techniques to reduce the formation of Acrylamide in its products. The frozen and chip potato processors have provided FDA with comments and data specific to their processing processes, our comments here on behalf of growers, are focused on the realities of what growers can do to affect Acrylamide levels in potato products. The opportunities for potato growers to impact Acrylamide include variety selection, storage temperatures, preventing sprouting and potato maturity at harvest. All of the decisions on these subjects are made in partnership with the potato processors and are often explicitly defined in the terms of the contracts offered to growers by the processors. Therefore, growers are applying all the techniques which are known to be effective in these areas to reduce Acrylamide formation through the