2012 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416): To cooperate with potato breeders, producers, and processors to improve post harvest potato quality by reducing storage and processing losses. A major portion of this effort involves the evaluation of storage and processing characteristics of promising new varieties and advanced germplasm developed and submitted by U.S. potato breeding programs. Identify new genotypes with the ability to process directly from a storage temperature of less than 7 degree C. Identify optimum storage conditions for new cold-sweetening resistant germplasm and field-stressed tubers. 1b.Approach (from AD-416): This research project is a service project that provides standardized storage, processing and analysis of advanced breeding clones submitted by public potato breeding programs. All protocols, storage conditions, and analytical methods used have been standardized in accordance with current industry practices and are therefore invariant. Specific approaches include:. 1)storage, processing and evaluation of new breeding lines,. 2)determine cold storage potential of selected clones and cultivars, and. 3)evaluate and identify optimum postharvest treatments to minimize quality loss in field-stressed potatoes. 3.Progress Report: Variations in potato process product quality for chips and fries due to disease and sugar accumulation result in major storage losses costing producers and processors hundreds of millions of dollars annually. In continuation of our program to evaluate the storage and processing characteristics of promising new potato clones, cooperative research has been expanded to include public potato breeding programs at eleven universities (ND, MN, MI, OH, NB, WI, ID, MA, NY, TX and CO) and two USDA, ARS programs. In the past year, over 16,500 individual quality evaluations were performed on elite potato lines following storage under defined conditions. This direct selection process will speed the introduction of new potato cultivars with superior processing characteristics.