Edward Anton Maria Asselbergs (1927–1996) was a Dutch-Canadian food chemist famous for inventing the modern process of producing instant mashed potato flakes. He was raised in the Netherlands where he received his undergraduate degree, but fled to Canada with his family during the second World War. He received a master's degree from

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...

and the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

and a doctorate from

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. His 1955 thesis was "studies on ascorbic acid synthesis in apple leaves" (Cornell: 1955, 304 pages). In 1960, while working for the Canadian Department of Agriculture in Ottawa (Agriculture Canada), he developed a process of making instant mashed potato flakes, and filed a patent on the process (Canadian patent 3260607, July 1966). The product reached the market in 1962. Another of his inventions at the time was an infrared apple peeler. He later worked for the

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

, moving to Italy where he became chief of the technical division, an important component of the

Green Revolution The Green Revolution, also known as the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period of technology transfer initiatives that saw greatly increased crop yields and agricultural production. These changes in agriculture began in developed countrie ...

. He retired in 1985. He has 5 children, two girls and three boys.

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