In boats, striped, in chips, croquettes, in the shape of smiley faces and with or without flavourings: if you really have to buy the frozen french fries at the supermarketyou are truly spoiled for choice. But what is the best product?
The answer is the January ranking by Il Gambero Rosso, which blindly tasted 19 products on sale in large-scale retail trade.
Frozen potatoes represent one of the most purchased products in Italy, with an annual consumption of approximately 169,000 tons in 2022, according to data from Iias, the Italian Frozen Food Institute. Their success in the frozen food sector is mainly due to two factors: their taste, which makes them one of the most popular snacks, and the practicality of preparation, suitable for different cooking methods – traditional fryer, air fryer, pan or oven – ready in a few minutes.
The ranking of the best frozen French fries according to Gambero Rosso
Below is the ranking of the 9 best frozen chips
1. Coop – Frying potatoes
First place in the ranking for frozen potatoes achieved thanks to the processing entrusted to the Bolognese company Pizzoli in the plant in San Pietro in Casale.
Ingredients: pre-fried potatoes 95.5%, sunflower seed oil. They are long, thin potato sticks with a uniform shape and lively golden colour.
But what is also convincing is the balanced and homogeneous aroma and taste in the performances, as sincere, linear and characteristic. Nothing sensational but the nose is delicate and clean: you can hardly smell the frying, only sweet vegetal notes of starch and fresh (almost unripe) potato, the mouth is sugary and slightly savory, with an imperceptible acidic and bitter touch on the finish. The structure is not bad, crunchy on the outside, soft but also tough to the bite, perhaps due to the nature of the potatoes, with a firm texture. Not very precise closure, the only aspect that still needs to be worked on.
2. Pizzoli – PataSnella Chips
Pizzoli is undoubtedly a leader in the sector, capable of offering both fresh and frozen potatoes of any type. One of its most successful products is PataSnellaborn in 1998, the first French fry that is prepared in the oven, offered in 10 variations.
Essential label (potatoes, sunflower seed oil 5%), has a reassuringly homogeneous appearance in its bright golden color and matchstick cut. The aromatic profile is neutral and quite clean, only on the palate is there an acidic accent and a slight bitterness at the end. And the structure is also quite enjoyable, crunchy on the outside and soft at the heart.
3. Conad – Chips to fry
Also made by Pizzoli, in the San Pietro in Casale factory.
The label is very short: potatoes and sunflower seed oil 4.7%.
The amber color, the pleasant and crumbly texture with the external crunchiness that dialogues with the internal softness, the good chewiness, above all the simple, direct and linear aroma and aromas of fresh and precise potato. The taste, persistent and not very savory, is initially sweet and ends with an acidic and bitter note, the only flaw in an overall honest and enjoyable product.
4. Mc Cain – Golden Long
McCain crisps, produced in France, Belgium and Holland with potatoes grown in Northern Europe, boast a range of over 20 references in different cuts and variants. Among these, the Golden Long they stand out for their thin and elongated shape, gaining a prominent position just below the preference podium. They promise “unparalleled browning and crunchiness” and have a homogeneous appearance, an intense yellow color and a delicate aroma of fresh fried potato. On the palate they give a sweet and soft taste, with a crumbly rather than crunchy texture.
5. Carletto Findus – Classic chips!
Made with 97% potatoessunflower oil and dextrose, are not produced in the historic Italian factory Cistern of Latinabut in the Belgian one of Wielsbekeone of 14 European production sites of Nomad Foodsthe British group that owns the Findus brand.
6. Wonders of the Countryside – The Chips
The oven is suggested on the package as the ideal cooking method, although the fryer is also among the available options. The Wonders of the Countryside crisps they are branded by SACPO, an Abruzzo company located on the borders of the National Park and the Piana del Fucino, an area particularly suited to the cultivation of potatoes.
What penalizes the product, experts say, is the poor homogeneity of the sticks, both in cut and size, and in flavor and consistency, probably due to the use of potatoes of different varieties, origins and ages.
7. Harvest Basket (Lidl) – French fries
Harvest Basket is a trademark of Lidl. On the packaging of frozen pre-fried chips, but only the information like the ingredients (97% potatoes, 3% sunflower seed oil), nutritional values, temperatures and cooking times for the fryer, storage method and distributor address.
8. Pizzoli – We Love Extrafine
Pizzoli you also make room in the rankings with your line Wonderful – We Lovein eighth position with the variant Extrafineone of the 9 proposals in the range. Defined in the package as “Thin-cut, delicious and extra-crispy chips”are described with the catchy slogan “crispy matchesxximi”.
Produced in the Budrio factory, these chips are made with a essential recipe: potatoes, 5.4% sunflower seed oil and salt.
The most disappointing aspect, according to the experts who did the test, is the structure: although crunchiness should be the distinctive feature of Extrafine, it turns out to be more light and superficial than expected, a crispy veil that envelops an interior soft and chewablebut with a tendency to “glue” to the palate.
9. Consilia – Chips to fry
Consilia is the brand owned by the SUN consortium (Supermercati Uniti Nazionali), which brings together five large-scale retail brands: Alfi, Cadoro, CediGros (including supermarkets Pim and Pewex), Gabrielli Group And Italbrix.
The branded chips Consilia they are produced by the Abruzzo company SACPOwith two ingredients: potatoes and 5% sunflower seed oil.
According to the test results, the sensations are less convincing olfactory and gustatory“where they emerge sweet starchy notes and hints of oil absorbed during cookingwhich slightly penalize the overall experience”.
Frozen French fries yes or no?
Having said that, there is a note to make: we have said it several times, but unlike other frozen vegetable foods, such as vegetables, legumes or fruit, which are simply preserved using the cold technique, frozen potatoes available in large-scale retail trade organized undergo a more complex industrial process: first of all, it involves pre-fried productsand the simplest versions contain approximately 96-97% potatoeswith the addition of sunflower oil, dextrose and salt.
In more processed products, however, the list of ingredients becomes longer and includes additives such as diphosphates (E450, stabilizers), modified potato starch, rice flour, dextrins, yeast extract And leavening agents such as sodium bicarbonate (E500) and diphosphates (E450).
These ingredients are used to improve the texture and crunchiness of the final product, but they make frozen potatoes very different from a simple cut and frozen potato.
