Like potatoes but lack the time to bake them? See what an Idaho company just unveiled

(Idaho Statesman) — What if you could have a baked potato in minutes, instead of an hour?

Mart Frozen Foods, a subsidiary of the Mart Group, cut the ribbon earlier this month on a plant in Southern Idaho that produces whole, fully baked Idaho russet potatoes that you can microwave in four minutes. The Mart Group, based in Rupert, is a group of family-owned businesses that deliver potato products to grocers, distributors and wholesalers in North America, according to its website.

Mart Group CEO Julian Critchfield says the product, called OH!Tatoes, is comparable to regular oven-baked potatoes in taste and texture while taking a fraction of the time to prepare. He said the company hired a consulting group to do consumer testing and “the response was just overwhelming.”

“Everyone loves baked potatoes, but it takes time to prepare them,” Critchfield told the Idaho Statesman on a Zoom call. “The sensory test was comparing this product with a freshly baked potato and a microwaved potato. The taste and texture came out equal to a fresh-baked potato and miles ahead on convenience and way ahead of just microwaving a raw potato.”

Mart Group washes and bakes the potatoes at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, not unlike what you might do with a medium-sized potato at home. Then, they’re flash-frozen and packaged in resealable bags. There are no preservatives or added ingredients. The skin is left on.

A product like it has never been sold in the U.S. market before, the Mart Group says.

Critchfield said the Mart Group “stumbled across this” when it bought World Wide Foods, a Burley-based food distribution company, about two years ago. World Wide Foods had already been selling whole baked potatoes overseas for over a decade.

“They were actually producing this product for the Japanese market, because you can’t import any fresh potatoes,” he said. “This was their way to get a whole baked potato into Japan.”

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Each 40-ounce package includes six to eight potatoes, depending on the size. They’re not individually wrapped and have a shelf life of a year and a half in the freezer. They sell for $7 to $8 a bag, with a variance for freight costs.

OH!Tatoes are expected to be on shelves by the end of the year, Critchfield said. The company plans to sell the product at supermarkets primarily on the East Coast and in the Midwest, including Publix and Harris Teeter, and to Western independent grocers served by Associated Foods, a cooperative whose stores include Jerome-based Ridley’s Family Markets. The closest Ridley’s stores to Boise are in Kuna, Star and Middleton.

Critchfield said Mart Frozen Foods plans to produce other potato-related products at its plant under the OH!Tatoes brand.

The company unveiled its $65 million, 100,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Rupert on Oct. 2. A news release said the plant will create 80 full-time jobs.

The plant is adjacent to the Mart Group’s headquarters in the Magic Valley, home to other food giants like Chobani and Clif Bar. The eight-county agricultural area generates nearly half of Idaho’s more than $11 billion in annual farm cash receipts, according to a report from the University of Idaho.

Idaho state Sen. Kelly Anthon, a Republican from Burley, touts the agricultural sector’s role in the Idaho economy.

“We’re seeing American food staples being made new again,” Anthon told the Idaho Statesman by Zoom. “This is the same old food we’ve been eating for generations, but now Idaho is leading in innovating those products. It’s going to be powerful, and it’s going to be incredible for the Idaho economy.”

Critchfield, who grew up on a potato farm in Oakley, less than 30 miles from Rupert, spoke about the moment he introduced OH!Tatoes to his mother, who he said baked fresh potatoes every Sunday for decades. He “converted her.”

“Yesterday I had a chance to have dinner with my mom,” he said. “I hauled out a bag of OH!Tatoes, popped them in the microwave and she cut into them. She goes, ‘Oh my gosh, these are awesome.’”