The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that Florida avocado producers voted to continue their federal marketing order program.

The referendum was held from Sept. 22 through Oct. 6. In order to be eligible to vote, a producer must have produced avocados within the production area during the representative period of April 1, 2007, through March 31, 2008.

Southern Specialties Inc., headquartered in Pompano Beach, FL, has added Florida-grown grape and teardrop tomatoes to its "Southern Selects" specialty tomato lineup.

The new additions include "Southern Selects" conventional red grape tomatoes as well as "Southern Selects" organic red grape tomatoes and yellow grape tomatoes. The company will also introduce "Southern Selects" organic red and yellow teardrop tomatoes, which are available in a conventional style as well.

ROTTERDAM, NY - Railex LLC has a ticket for The History Channel's new show "Extreme Trains."

Paul Esposito, senior vice president of sales and logistics for Railex, told The Produce News that the firm, a division of Riverhead, NY-based ADS Management LLC, would be featured on an upcoming episode of the show.

HARTFORD, CT -- Harvest New England has announced that its 2009 Agricultural Marketing & Trade Show will be held Feb. 24-26 at the Sturbridge Host Hotel in Sturbridge, MA.

Supreme Cuts, a distributor of fresh-cut produce products based in Mahwah, NJ, introduced a "steaming bag" packaging for three of its popular products.

The first three Supreme Cuts products available utilizing this new steaming bag packaging technology are snipped green beans, wax beans and rainbow medley, a mix of yellow and green beans with carrots.

The National Watermelon Association Inc., with collaboration from academia, government, industry, retail, foodservice and other trade associations, unveiled the first edition of a comprehensive food-safety program that is specific to the growing, handling, packing, distribution and traceability of the watermelon crop in North America and Central America.