The Avocado Producers & Exporting Packers Association of Michoacan, which represents the avocado industry in the Mexican state of Michoacan and which is better known by the acronym APEAM, has named Emiliano Escobedo director of marketing, reporting directly to the organization's new chairman and board of directors, who were appointed in July and officially inaugurated Nov. 18 by Mexico President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Food & Drug Administration updated its plan for reforming the agency's food-safety program in a Dec. 1 report, but consumer groups criticized the agency for not doing enough to stem the safety problems caused by domestic and imported foods.

Although the source was not able to be confirmed, the Ontario government has declared the recent E. coli outbreak in southeastern part of the province over.

Salyer American Fresh Foods Inc. has hired Allan Sabatier as its senior vice president of sales and marketing. He joined the company about a month ago, according to Eric Schwartz, president of Salyer American and chief operations officer for SK Foods Group.

Most recently Mr. Sabatier was executive vice president of sales and marketing for Irwindale, CA-based Ready Pac Produce Inc. Previously, he worked for eight years for Monterey, CA-based Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc. For five of those years at Dole he worked under Mr. Schwartz as vice president of sales and marketing.

TexaSweet Citrus Marketing Inc. has elected new officers for the new Texas season. They are Mike Martin, president; Yishai Yeshurun, vice president; and Verle Cray, secretary-treasurer. Other directors are Trent Bishop, Paul Heller, Richard Walsh, Jeff Arnold, Fernando Vieto, Eduardo Carrillo, Dennis Holbrook and Fred Karle.

"One of our goals this season is to reinforce the message that the industry is strong and healthy," Mr. Martin said in a press release. "Through TexaSweet's promotional efforts, we hope to increase our consumer base throughout the season."

In recent months, Naples, FL-based Naturipe Farms LLC, an international grower-owned producer and marketer of foods, added four new faces to its team in key positions.

Those hires are Mohinder Sikka, senior director of operations; Michael Bentel, director of food safety and quality assurance; Richard Burden, director of transportation; and Robin Doran, director of communications.