Barbecue cassava chips

For those who love the crunch of a good chip, JP Tropical Foods Division, the new face of Jamaica Producers food brands, has added cassava chips to its range of snacks.

Available in original and barbecue flavours, the tuber, which has been getting a lot of attention in recent months, has joined banana, breadfruit and plantain as raw material for the company's chips.


Consumers like product

"When we tested the concept of St Mary's Cassava Chips with consumers, they told us they liked it, because not only do they taste great, but consumers are impressed with the fact that compared to potato chips, they are loaded with vitamin C
, have fewer calories, 20 per cent less fat and more than twice the fibre," said Rolf Simmonds, commercial director of Jamaica Producers Group Limited at the product launch last Wednesday.

The cassava chips are joining a family of already successful products with St Mary's Banana Chips being the most popular.

"Over a million packs of banana chips are consumed in any given week here in Jamaica," said Simmonds.

He also announced that the banana chips will also be available in barbecue flavour.

With a good track record for making chips, the company is taking a chance with cassava chips, which, according to Simmonds, reinforces its commitment to Jamaica's agricultural sector.

Minister of Agriculture Christopher Tufton, who was the special guest at the launch at the Annotto Bay farm, reinforced Jamaica's need to produce more with its own resources to ensure food security. He applauded Jamaica Producers' move to improve their company and products.

"I want to place on record and certainly articulate explicitly how much I believe that this is a positive move and a move that will certainly act as a catalyst for others to follow," said the minister.

"Everybody calls me 'the cassava man' so today I feel vindicated that cassava is now not only in the fields but you can get it in original and barbecue," he quipped.