For most consumers, lettuce and tomatoes go hand in hand. But in the produce department, the tomato category has definitely outdistanced its salad and burger complement in recent years.

While the lettuce category had a great run with the addition of value-added items in the 1990s, unlike the tomato category it has not seen a lot of innovation in the past decade. But that might be changing.

WASHINGTON -- United Fresh Produce Association President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Stenzel testified in Congress June 3 that he is concerned that a draft food-safety bill ready for markup this month could derail the produce industry's traceability initiative.

At a four-hour hearing before the House Energy & Commerce Health subcommittee, Mr. Stenzel said that Congress should allow only commodity- specific standards for fresh produce that apply equally to domestic- and foreign-grown products.

With Mexico slapping a 45 percent tariff on U.S. grapes this year, China could become a very important market for the California grape industry.

Veronica Rodriguez dreams big -- and is working diligently to make those dreams a reality.

The 28-year-old vice president of sales and marketing for Caribe Food Corp. in Miami is a third-generation member of the family-owned importer- exporter-distributor.

"My grandfather Guillermo Rodriguez started this business in 1970 sending Latin crops north to his brother in New Jersey," she said. The company, which is preparing for its 40th anniversary, today features a product line of more than 200 items.

In an unusual arrangement, D'Arrigo Bros. Co. of California, based in Salinas, CA, has stepped in and is now selling and marketing "American Classic" brand green, orange and purple cauliflower.

The cauliflower and the packaging belong to Salinas-based grower-shipper Salyer American Fresh Foods, which is currently in receivership and is awaiting a court ruling about its future.

Lawyers for Salyer American Fresh Foods in Salinas, CA, were expected to be in court June 5 to ask the judge to remove the court-appointed receiver that has been running the firm for the past month.

In early May, Steve Franson, the receiver, took control of the grower-shipper operation, which owed lenders more than $34 million and had informed its growers to quit planting crops for future harvest. At the time, Salyer American reportedly agreed to the appointment, but it has since had a change of heart.