BELLEVUE, Wash., February 01, 2001

New Vice President of Finance Joins Penford Corporation

Penford Corporation (Nasdaq: PENX) announced today that Jacqueline L. Davidson joined the company as Vice President of Finance. Davidson brings 18 years of experience in finance, management and accounting operations skills to Penford. She has a broad knowledge of the SEC and financial reporting regulations, corporate policy development and implementation, acquisitions, as well as management of cash and debt facilities, and vendor relations.

"Jackie has demonstrated great success in finance and accounting throughout her career and will be an enormous asset to our team," said Penford Corporation President and CEO, Jeffrey T. Cook. "Her extensive knowledge of financial operations for both online and traditional businesses will help Penford capitalize on new opportunities for growth and development."

Prior to joining Penford, Davidson served as Vice President of Finance at The Cobalt Group, an online marketing business serving the automotive industry. Previously, Davidson was Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance for Seattle-based Oceantrawl, Inc. Davidson is a certified public accountant, a member of the Washington and American Society of CPAs and holds a degree in business administration from Washington State University.

About Penford
Penford Corporation develops, manufactures and markets specialty natural-based ingredient systems for various applications including papermaking, textiles and food products.

For automated shareholder information, please call 1-888-317-2013.

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning future performance of the Company's specialty ingredient systems and the prospects for the continuation of current performance trends in fiscal 2001. There are a variety of factors which could cause actual events to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements such as decreases or delays in customer demand or orders, increased competition, decreases in market share, unfavorable changes in product mix, disappointments in product development efforts, interest rate and energy cost volatility, foreign exchange rate fluctuations and those listed in the Company's SEC reports, including the reports on Form 10-K for the year ended August 31, 2000.