Mystery judges on the prowl at local chippies

Chip shops across the country should be on the lookout for a mysterious character calling into their shops, as mystery judging in the Crisco Oils Best New Zealand Chip Shop Competition gets underway this week.
 
To complete the second phase of judging in the Competition, the mystery judging panel will visit the top 20 chip shops from each of the six Competition regions, as determined by public text voting over the past eight weeks.
 
Goodman Fielder Commercial General Manager Sales and Marketing, Graeme Laurence, said each of the top 20 chip shops in each region, which have been selected by public text voting, will now be scrutinised by a mystery judge this month.
 
"The judge will purchase a chip sample which will then be sent away to an AgriQuality laboratory for fat analysis," Graeme said.
 
"Judges will also look at a range of other criteria including chip freshness and colour, shop cleanliness and customer service.
 
"Each shop must utilise the Heart Foundation's recommended frying techniques with the aim being to achieve fat levels of less than 9.2 per cent per chip - the average chip contains approximately 11.5 percent fat."
 
Heart Foundation nutritionist, Judith Morley-John, said the Heart Foundation's best practice frying techniques include: using thick, straight-cut chips, which absorb less fat than crinkle-cuts or shoestrings; cooking at 175 -180°C and, draining the cooked chips correctly - commonly referred to as the 'shake, bang and hang' method.
 
"By using our recommended techniques, shops can reduce the fat in chips by as much as 20 per cent.  If all shops did this, we could potentially remove over 2,500 tonnes of fat from the national food supply annually," Judith said.
 
The Crisco Best New Zealand Chip Shop Competition 2007 is the country's only national chip shop competition and is this year supported by Goodman Fielder, Huhtamaki, Bakels, Food2Go Magazine, McCain, Moffat, Mr Chips, NZARFD, Potato Growers of New Zealand, Premo Filtration, Southern Hospitality and the Heart Foundation.
 
Local winners will be announced on 26 October, while the six regional winners and grand national winner are expected to be announced on 8 November.

ENDS