The potato will continue to be classified as a vegetable in federal dietary guidelines after speculation, and concern among industry groups, that they might be reclassified as a grain.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack notified Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday that the USDA will officially support keeping potatoes classified as a vegetable, the senator said in a news release.
The USDA updates its Dietary Guidelines for Americans every five years and is currently working on its 2025-2030 guidelines. In the current guidelines, potatoes are listed with other “starchy vegetables,” including corn, jicama, lima beans and plantains.
Potatoes are neither root vegetables, like carrots, nor grains. They are tubers. But the classification debate has not been academic: Changes to the guidelines could affect school lunches and other public nutrition programs.
The USDA’s most recent guidelines note that among children and adolescents “starchy vegetables (e.g., white potatoes, corn) — often in forms that are fried or prepared with additions such as butter and salt — are more frequently consumed than the red and orange; dark green; or beans, peas, and lentils vegetable subgroups.”
It’s not clear whether, or to what extent, the USDA was ever contemplating a new view of potatoes. In a statement published by The Hill, a spokesperson said the advisory committee “is not considering a change to the classification of potatoes,” and that it “is not within the Committee’s purview to make such a change.”
Rumors of the change came largely from testimony by leaders of the potato industry to the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.
Sen. Collins and a bipartisan group of 14 lawmakers from the major potato producing states wrote a letter to the USDA’s Vilsack and Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, opposing the potential reclassification.
“The reclassification of potatoes would have sent a false message to the public that the USDA believes that potatoes are not healthy,” Collins said on Wednesday. “The fact is, when prepared properly, the potato is a wonderfully nutritious food that is affordable, easy to transport, has a long storage life, and can be used in a wide array of recipes.”
Manie ranks in the top 10 of potato producing states, according to a 2023 overview by the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. The potato industry contributes $540 million in sales, employs 6,100 people, and contributes more than $32 million in state and local taxes.
The analysis goes on to say that 65 percent of Maine potatoes are used for processed foods like French fries and potato chips.
