Two Salinas, CA-based companies -- Foxy Foods LLC and Taylor Fresh Foods Inc. -- announced that they have agreed to merge Foxy Foods fresh produce processing operations into Taylor Fresh Foods.

The merger will add Foxy Foods' team of people, its innovative fresh-cut vegetable product line and its customer partners in the retail and club store markets to Taylors North American salad and fresh-cut vegetable processing network.

"Since AgriCap Financial Corporation first launched its web site, www.agricap.com, nearly three years ago, the company has added numerous new services," said Peter H. Tam, vice president of marketing for the firm, headquartered in Los Angeles. "Commercial real estate and supply chain financing are now included in our portfolio. We also opened offices in Latin America to assist us with our international trade deals. Information on these and other new developments and additions is now available on the site, and the navigation process is clear and uncomplicated."

Salinas, CA-based Red Blossom Farms has introduced a web-accessible traceback system just in time for spring and peak strawberry season.

Red Blossom has taken the industry standard into the electronic age by launching its own traceback web site, www.rbtrace.com. Customers at all levels of the distribution chain can input a clamshell's traceback code on the site and instantly receive a detailed report of that product's source. The traceback system can be accessed directly from the web site listed on the bottom of each clamshell and also from www.redblossom.com.

South Florida is currently facing the most serious drought conditions since water tables began being recorded over 90 years ago. The low tables have resulted in the South Florida Water Management District ordering the most severe water usage restrictions on the public, including on the agriculture industry, in its history.

Workers excavating land in Corozal, Belize, in preparation for building headquarters for Homestead, FL-based Brooks Tropicals Inc. have unearthed Mayan artifacts dating back more than 1,500 years.

The discovery occurred about a month ago with workers first finding a wall of a structure. Work was halted, and the Belize Institute of Archaeology was called to the site.

Brooks Tropicals has paid for the excavation to date and will continue to fund the archaeological dig and the preservation of the artifacts, according to Mary Ostlund, director of marketing at Brooks.

WASHINGTON -- Irradiated foods may not have to carry the "irradiation" label or "radura" logo under a proposed rule that represents a shift in policy for the Food & Drug Administration.

The April 4 proposal would require irradiation labeling only for foods in which the irradiation treatment causes "a material change" in the food, such as changes in taste, smell, nutrition or functional properties. FDA cited irradiated bananas as an example of a material change because bananas may be irradiated to delay ripening and extend shelf life.