Small potatoes? Not for Tayto...

YOU may think you love spuds – but it’s unlikely you don’t love them more than Tayto!

And the proof of this is in the eating, as the snack maker is hoovering up a tenth of the nation’s entire potato crop to make its popular crisps.

The company, based in Ashbourne, Co. Meath, produces more than 2million snack products a week, which are also sold in Britain, mainland Europe, Australia and the Middle East. It sources almost 30,000 tonnes of potatoes from Irish farms each year, which it estimates equates to approximately 10% of the nation’s annual potato crop.

This emerged as it was revealed yesterday that the company behind Ireland’s most famous crisps – Largo Foods – is changing its name to Tayto Snacks. It is adopting the new name in recognition of the strength of the Tayto name, it said yesterday.

The company was founded by Joe ‘Spud’ Murphy in 1954. Mr Murphy, who died in 2001, first introduced the world to the cheese and onion flavour.