To achieve crispy fry perfection, most American chefs prefer canola or soybean oil.
It’s still unclear what’s going to happen with theadditional tariffs.
For the past five years, the US hasimported morefrozen fries than it has produced.
A price hike would cut deeply into her profit margins.
If the tariffs on USMCA-compliant goods hit, she doesn’t know what she’ll do.
Plenty of other restaurants are also bracing for impact.
One-third of the potatoes grown in the US become frozen fries.
For decades, restaurants usedtallow, or rendered beef fat, to cook fries.
They eventually created the edible and shelf-stable product we use today.
By the ’90s, the fast-food giants swapped their tallow supply for canola, often blended with other oils.
French fries are crucial in how many restaurants balance their budgets.
An believes that both countries will bear some of the burden.
To be sure, rising labor costs and inflation also played a role.
But it’s not a cost-saving solution.
Some pricier restaurants fry their fries in duck fat, which is even more expensive.
Instead of avoiding canola, some restaurants might start to stretch its use.
But there are ways that restaurants can extend the life of their oil without making the food taste bad.
One extracts bad oil, and the other pumps in fresh stuff as needed.
The used oil is picked up by the supplier and transformed into biofuel.
The majority soybean oil blend she uses costs her about $15,000 a year.
But she can’t keep raising prices.
“There’s a market sensitivity there that we might not be able to meet.”
Instead, she’ll have to reconsider her menu or purchasing options.
“It’s what we’ve had to do with eggs,” she says.
“For the fries, it’s not a big hit,” she says.
“Countries have to protect their borders.
She plans to absorb the cost of any increases.
But if tariffs are still in place by then, it would have to look at switching oils.
At this stage, it’s impossible to know how everything will shake out.
For now, Trump’s trade war is poised to make freedom fries far from free.
Corey Mintzis a food reporter focusing on the intersection of food, economics, and labor.
