John Bailey, executive director of Top 10 Produce LLC in Salinas, CA, told The Produce News that on June 1, the company launched an initiative to help family and small growers maximize the effectiveness of traceback technology in an efficient and low-cost way.

PHILADELPHIA - A single set of standards is critically important as the national produce industry moves with its global partners toward an efficient traceability program.

Those standards were detailed at a June 24 meeting, here, as more than 100 produce industry representatives gathered for a presentation about the Produce Traceability Initiative that was part of the Produce Marketing Association's Fresh Connections series. Giving the presentation was Gary Fleming, vice president of industry technology and standards for PMA.

Deloitte & Touche, the court-appointed receiver of Red Zoo Marketing, a greenhouse producer and distributor headquartered in Ruthven, ON, is in the process of indentifying buyers for the business.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has mobilized a national response team to investigate the cause of a fire which razed one historic building in Wenatchee, WA, and damaged another.

A 100,000-square-foot warehouse formerly owned by Stemilt Growers Inc. was destroyed, and authorities indicated that the adjoining Go USA Building was damaged but will be salvaged. Both structures are listed on the city's historic register.

WASHINGTON - With a new food-safety bill moving quickly through the U.S. House, the Food & Drug Administration has hired a produce industry expert, Jim Gorny, to work in the Washington, DC, office as an advisor to FDA's food safety office.

The FDA has received new money in recent months to staff the resource- starved food program, and the agency will need help in meeting new mandates under food-safety legislation that passed a House committee in June.

Reflecting the world economy, the global banana marketing situation is complex as it is described by Juan Alarcon, the chief executive officer of Turbana Corp. in Coral Gables, FL.

When the view of banana markets is narrowed to North America, it is a scene that does not reflect wider turbulence, he said, noting that it is the European and North American markets that have remained most steady.