U.S. consumers spend each year more than USD7bn on potato crisps at retail outlets. That’s why the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) ensures that the nation always has the ideal potato for frying into chips.

Some significant winners in the potato chip area have already come from the ARS potato breeding program. One is Atlantic, a variety that ARS created and made available in 1976; it is still the second-most popular chipping type in the country.

For years, potato growers have been anticipating a substitute for the Atlantic. In sandy soils during mild, dry seasons, the Atlantic is susceptible to internal heat necrosis, which causes darker spots or flecks to appear in the meat of the potato. It is also prone to Hollow Heart, a disease where a hollow depression develops in the middle of the potato as a result of extremely uneven moisture levels during the growing process.

“But diseases and pests keep evolving, so we need to keep breeding new varieties to stay ahead of them,” Research Geneticist, Richard Novy, with the Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research Unit in Aberdeen, Idaho, explained.

Every year, scientists at the ARS potato breeding program make thousands of chipping potato crosses to improve disease and pest resistance, as well as achieve perfect potato chip color and proper sugar levels, good storage ability, and a whole host of superior agronomic traits such as yield, time to harvest and tuber size.

Novy has a very promising new chipping potato in the pipeline at Aberdeen, known right now as A13125-3C, which is showing much potential in Idaho and the National Chip Processing Trial (NCPT). ARS participates alongside universities and industry in the NCPT, which is run through Potatoes USA, to test potatoes simultaneously at sites all over the country.

A13125-3C won’t get a catchy variety name until after it completes several years of trials and then goes through a tissue culture process to remove any viruses and bacteria to allow the production of certified seed for producers.

“By sharing access to germplasm and testing nationally, you can more quickly identify candidates having a variety of potential for the chipping industry. Such a program helps regional chip companies to identify promising new potato varieties for their production of chips,” Novy declared.

Across the country from the Aberdeen lab, ARS Plant Research Geneticist Paul Collins in Orono, Maine, is concentrating on breeding chipping potatoes with better disease resistance for eastern potato growers. One major focus is potatoes that can better withstand Late Blight, a fungal disease that causes an annual loss of USD210m.

“Most diseases we are working on can affect the farmer’s ability to produce a potato crop and they can have a staggering economic impact. Potato Virus Y, for example, causes annual losses of USD103m in yield and tuber quality,” Collins said.

While ARS scientists are breeding potatoes to fight diseases, most consumers do not have to worry about their snacks being affected by any of these viruses. The chipping varieties for the snack aisle, usually Atlantic, Snowden, and Lamoka, are not found in the grocery store’s produce bins.

“Our goal is to breed potato varieties which are resistant to these diseases, and with other agronomic traits that are important to farmers while also having quality traits like color, shape, and size that are important to consumers and processors,” Collins concluded.

Americans eat more potato chips than any other nation; more than 1.8 kilos a person a year, according to Potatoes USA. About 22% of the U.S. potato crop – nearly 3.4m kilos annually – are transformed into chips.

Potato chips are America’s classic snack: crunchy, salty, greasy, and tasting of potato or flavored with sour cream, vinegar, BBQ, maple bacon, or Cajun dill. And on March 14, chip lovers across the country can celebrate them on National Potato Chip Day.