On April 11, representatives from leading produce trade associations and the California Department of Food & Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura announced plans to create a Center for Produce Safety at the University of California-Davis.

The center will be housed at UC Davis' Western Institute for Food Safety & Security, which has a mission is to conduct research that enhances the safety and security of the nation's food supply.

An Easter weekend freeze devastated fruit crops from Georgia to West Virginia. There may be damage farther north, but time will probably show that growers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York state didn't sustain major crop damage.

Peach grower Cline Cash of Cash Farms Inc. in Cowpens, SC, told The Produce News April 11 that for several hours on the morning of April 7, the temperature was 24 degrees at his 100-acre peach farm. "It was pretty much a 100 percent loss. We'll wait until next year and hope for better weather."

Researchers from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, the University of Minnesota and the University of Oslo in Norway used the ferric reducing ability of plasma assay method to measure the antioxidant levels in 1,113 different food and beverage items. Artichokes were found to be the leading vegetables in terms of providing anti-oxidants per servings and were No. 4 overall. The results were recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

SPRING HOUSE, PA -- AgroFresh Inc. has unveiled its new research laboratory in Davis, CA, holding an open house at its new facility located minutes from the University of California campus there.

According to AgroFresh, the new laboratory was established to support core research and development needs of the company, which specializes in quality management systems through its expertise and understanding of ethylene management for the horticultural and agronomic crop industries.

The United Fresh Produce Association will honor the winners of its 2007 Retail Produce Manager Award at the upcoming United Fresh Marketplace show at FMI, to be held May 5-8 in Chicago.

Alan Schreiber, executive director of the Washington Asparagus Commission in Eltopia, WA, expects supplies of fresh asparagus will be tight in 2007.

"Supplies will be tighter than last year," Dr. Schreiber told The Produce News. "There are a number of handlers who won't have the product they want. Prices, however, are going to be relatively good."