Tater Tots were created in 1954.
The first tater tots were made from french fry scraps.
Brothers F. Nephi Grigg and Golden Grigg founded the Oregon Frozen Foods Company, later known as Ore-Ida, in Ontario, Oregon, in 1952.
One of their first items was frozen French fries, and after seeing all the potato scraps they had leftover, they came up with an idea. By chopping up the potato parts, seasoning them, and molding them into pellets, they were able to create a new product. With help from a thesaurus, they landed on the name tater tot and debuted their creation in 1954.
Tater Tots have different names around the world.
Tot-lovers in New Zealand and Australia may refer to them as potato gems, potato royals, potato pom-poms, or hash bites.
The food is so popular in New Zealand that Pizza Hut launched a pie with a hash bite crust there in 2016.
In Canada, they’re called tasti taters or spud puppies, and they’ve been labeled oven crunchies in the UK.
