United States: There is light at the end of a twenty-year tunnel for a French fry vending machine project thanks to government state funding.

Over two decades ago a large manufacturers of frozen potatoes tried to perfect such a vending machine without success. Another attempt by a company in the 1990s that was deemed a scam also failed.

Today two businessmen from the town of Laurel in the State of Delaware in the United States say they have come up with the recipe for success.

The businessmen have strategic plans to launch the manufacturing venture under their company Fry Manufacturing LLC and hope to receive money from the state’s Strategic Fund to help finance the venture. The project could eventually employ up to 300 people, said the businessmen.

Fry Manufacturing says it will demonstrate a prototype to officials from the Delaware Economic Development Office, most likely in late August. If all goes according to plan, the owners would then seek state help in getting an assembly plant up and running.

Laurel Democratic Senator Robert L Venables has inserted the $50,000 into the General Assembly’s annual bond bill to help Fry Manufacturing LLC produce its demonstration model. Venables, who chairs the Legislature’s Bond Bill Committee commented: “The potential is really, really big.”

The new vending machine would use a proprietary mix of dehydrated, 100 percent russet potatoes reports www.potatonews.com. The potatoes are rehydrated, extruded into 4-inch french fries, cooked and dispensed into a cup in 48 seconds. The machine is a countertop unit less than 30 inches square.