Instant potato flakes were introduced commercially in 1957 and became an "instant" success; by 1960 six processors turned more than four million bushels of potatoes into flakes. Production increased after that because producers learned how to use the trimmings from the initial peeling process and potatoes that could not be sold due to irregularities in size and shape. In the 1960s potato consumption had not only rebounded; consumption was now expanding due to the availability of new and high quality convenience foods. Instant mashed potatoes led the way, but potato flakes were soon being used industrially in coatings, ingredients, and fabricated foods.

Miles Willard, who had been instrumental in the research conducted at the ERRC in the 1950s, had gone into the private sector, where he developed a whole new class of potato chip-like snack foods using reconstituted potato flakes. Called "crisp," these products included Pringles^®; the market for these chips exceeded $1.4 billion in 2000. In 2003 more than 2.4 billion pounds of potatoes were turned into dehydrated potato flakes in the United States. The United States Potato Board estimates that 10% of the U.S. potato crop is used in dehydration processes, with half of that number turned into potato flakes (compared to 30% for granules and 20% for potato pieces).

Processed potato flakes have been used as rations by the U.S. military and they are a key component of international food aid programs because of their long shelf life. In 2004, the USDA obtained nearly five million pounds of potato flakes at a cost of nearly two million dollars for shipment to Moldava. Similarly, millions of pound of potato flakes are purchased by the USDA annually for use in the National School Lunch Program and other domestic child nutrition and food assistance projects.

¹ The information cited on this page comes from a number of sources: Interviews conducted by Judah Ginsberg with Michael Kozempel, Gerald Sapers, and John Sullivan; documents supplied by the Eastern Regional Research Center in its application for Landmark status; and M.J. Willard, V.M. Hix, and G. Kluge, "Dehydrated Mashed Potatoes - Potato Flakes," Chapter 13 in Potato Processing, edited by William F. Talburt and Ora Smith, 4th edition, AVI Book (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1987).