Why does Western fast food sell potato chips instead of sweet potato fries?

When people eat at Western fast food restaurants such as McDonald's or KFC, some people like burgers and chicken nuggets, some people like desserts and ice cream, and some people have a special liking for French fries. However, some curious babies have asked, speaking of French fries, sweet potato fries are also French fries. Why do Western fast food restaurants only sell potato chips? Let the food culture introduce it to you.

Traditional cultural reasons

Potatoes and sweet potatoes have similar origins. These two crops native to South America were brought back together by the Spaniards in the 16th century during the Age of Discovery. Europe, and then gradually extended to the world.

Geographic Discovery

In 1620, the Mayflower brought the first group of impoverished Puritans to the New World in North America, mainly from Britain. Later, European immigrants continued to come to the North American colonies, and the French, Spanish, Dutch, and Irish were the main immigrants. The American habit of eating fried potato chips came from Europe.

Nowadays, there are dozens of shapes and combinations of fried potato chips, whether they are fish and chips in the UK, sausages with French fries in Germany, or deep-fried in France and Belgium. French fries were originally popular among the poor.

When Chinese people were poor in the 1950s, they used to eat sweet potato porridge on a large scale, which was rich in water and low in ingredients. The status of potatoes in Europe a few hundred years ago was similar to that of sweet potato porridge in China sixty years ago. People in Shizhou refused to eat potatoes, thinking that this kind of "barbarian food" was not mentioned in the Bible and that eating it would cause leprosy. Moreover, they also believe that potatoes grow underground and are different from the noble and straight ears of wheat, so they are not worthy of being made into bread.

However, food mysophobia has always belonged only to the nobles, and the common people who are struggling on the verge of death cannot control it so much. At the end of the 16th century, potatoes were introduced to Britain and spread rapidly in Britain, especially Ireland. By 1650, potatoes had become Ireland's main food crop. By the end of the 18th century at the latest, potato chips had spread across the European continent.

Reasons for planting conditions

So there were sweet potatoes in Europe at that time. Why did the poor only like to eat potatoes? This involves a more essential issue: the growing conditions of potatoes and sweet potatoes are different.

In terms of adaptability, potatoes are much better than sweet potatoes. Potatoes can be planted in spring, summer, autumn and winter. They can germinate at temperatures above three degrees Celsius and can be harvested in two or three months. They are cold and drought tolerant and can adapt to acidic and alkaline soils. They generally do not fail to harvest. They can be called an artifact to save the poor from water and fire.

Sweet potatoes are much more delicate and do not germinate below ten degrees Celsius. Although they grow well in South America, after transplanting to the northern hemisphere, except south of the Tropic of Cancer, they can basically only be planted in April. Harvest in October, no. Do the poor have to wait half a year if they want to satisfy their hunger? It's not that hard to understand why people decided to give up sweet potatoes.

Reasons for consumption patterns

It is generally believed that French fries in American fast food restaurants were a dietary habit learned by American soldiers from France and Belgium during World War I.

Different from the European eating habits of freshly fried and sold, Americans who love quick-frozen and semi-finished products invented quick-frozen French fries in the 1960s. Nowadays, ten-pound bags of quick-frozen French fries in family-priced packages fill the shelves of American supermarkets. French fries in American fast food restaurants around the world are actually pre-fried and delivered by restaurant giants such as Simplot.

The improved French fries consumption model is becoming more and more modern and incomparable with contemporary life.

Summary

Under the influence of various historical factors, the South American brothers potatoes and sweet potatoes now have very different international statuses. According to statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in 2012, the global potato planting area was twice that of sweet potatoes, and the total output was more than three times that of sweet potatoes.

Among the top ten countries with potato harvesting area, Russia, Ukraine, the United States and Poland are all on the list. The main sweet potato producing areas are China, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Indonesia, Vietnam, Madagascar, Angola, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea - if you look closely, there is not a single Western country.

It seems that changing the eating habit of "eating potatoes instead of sweet potatoes", which has been rooted in the Western world for hundreds of years, may be as difficult as forcing northerners to eat dumplings dipped in Shacha sauce.