WASHINGTON -- Three produce associations moved one step closer to adopting industrywide traceability standards, an effort that the groups acknowledge won't come cheap to a company's bottom line but is urgently needed.

Ron Carkoski, president and chief executive officer of Four Seasons Produce Inc. in Ephrata, PA, said the produce industry has lost a friend with the passing of Anthony Francis Colagiovanni, who died Jan. 11 following a yearlong battle with leukemia. He was 57.

"It's quite a loss," Mr. Carkoski told The Produce News.

"Tony joined the Four Seasons family in January of 2000 as a member of the buying team and developed into the role of lead buyer before his illness struck," Mr. Carkoski added.

As a result of the recent widespread frosts throughout the growing regions of California, highly flavorful artichokes known as "frost kissed" artichokes are now in stores for a short time.

"The impact of frost on artichokes is similar to how human skin reacts to sunburn," Kori Tuggle, marketing manager for Ocean Mist Farms, said in a press release. "Frost turns the outside layer of the artichoke dark brown, and then it flakes and peels."

Once cooked, the brown outer layer is gone, resulting in the soft green artichoke that is familiar to people.

By the middle of this year, consumers around the United States could have the opportunity to quickly gauge the nutritional content of everything in their supermarket from an apple to an apple tart and from a zucchini to zucchini bread.

Topco Associates in Skokie, IL, has teamed with Yale University's Griffin Hospital Prevention Research Center to make the nutritional information available to its member supermarkets.

EASTON, CA -- Around 18 months ago, drawing on the results of consumer research, the California Raisin Marketing Board in Fresno, CA, developed a new advertising and marketing concept for California raisins that focused on the health and nutritional benefits of raisins in the diet. The resultant campaign, now in its second year, is built around the theme "Wise Choices," and consumers as well as retail, foodservice and industrial customers have all been responsive to the message, according to Larry Blagg, senior vice president of marketing.

WASHINGTON -- Food safety will remain the top concern for produce industry trade groups in 2008, but they will be juggling other matters as Congress looks to capitalize on issues during an important election year.