The Herbal Garden in Wauconda, IL, and Fresh Connect in Chicago have signed an agreement whereby Fresh Connect will handle foodservice sales for The Herbal Garden. Acting as account representatives, Fresh Connect will represent The Herbal Garden to chain operators as well as distributors.

Gonzales, CA-based Foxy Foods, a leading supplier of fresh vegetable trays to consumers, has introduced two new vegetable trays using national brand, "Hidden Valley The Original Ranch Dressing."

The vegetable trays, available in 18- and 36-ounce sizes, offer consumers the opportunity to use the Hidden Valley dressing, which has the highest total advertising awareness among leading bottled dressing brands with 16 percent of all consumers indicating that "Hidden Valley The Original Ranch Dressing is the only dressing they would buy.

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. sold its 236 Canadian stores to the Quebec-based Metro Inc. retail operation this week in a move that was apparently very well received by the U.S. business community.

In Canadian dollars, the deal was announced at $1.7 billion: $1.2 billion Canadian in cash and $500 million Canadian in stock. The infusion of cash will help A&P retire much of its U.S. debt and refurbish many of its stores.

BC Hot House Foods Inc. in Surrey, British Columbia, announced July 20 the resignation of David R. Smith as president and chief executive officer.

Mr. Smith contributed three years to BC Hot House, in which time he focused on building and strengthenin g grower relations, acquiring year-round critical mass necessary to service a consolidated customer base, providing customers superior logistics and customer service and differentiating BC Hot House in the industry as a full product line greenhouse p roducer.

As quality assurance manager for Salinas, CA-based Mills Family Farms' Wholeaves program, 25-year-old Kari Scheidhauer shoulders a lot of responsibility.

"The ax falls on me" in the event of food-safety problems, Ms. Scheidhauer said. Still, she's grateful for the opportunity and feels that she's making a contribution to the program.

FRESNO, CA -- An extended heat wave in the Central Valley, which began June 30 and continued with a string of triple-digit temperatures through most of the month, has affected various crops currently being harvested in the valley. The nature of the effect differs with the type of crop.

With tomatoes, for example, the immediate effect appears to have been minor, but the heat caused a bloom drop that could reduce yields in four to six weeks.