MONT-TREMBLANT, QC -- For the first time in its 60-year history, the Quebec Produce Marketing Association has a female president, Bernadette Hamel, who also serves as the senior director of produce purchasing and merchandising in the province of Quebec for Metro Inc.

Ms. Hamel took over as president Aug. 25 when she ceremoniously received the gavel from the association's outgoing president, Michel Levac, at the closing banquet here at the Fairmount Tremblant.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's efforts to stymie the merger of Whole Foods Markets Inc. and Wild Oats Markets Inc. were thwarted in late August when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied the FTC's request for a stay to delay the closing of the deal.

The Vidalia Onion Committee, based in Vidalia, GA, has selected 10 winning produce managers from U.S. supermarket retail companies in its Sweet Rewards Merchandising Display Contest, which was held from May 1 through June 8.

The AccuWeather forecast for Fresno, CA, on Aug. 29, called for high temperatures of 106-108 degrees every day through Sept. 2, cooling to 104 on Sept. 3 before dropping back into double-digit readings beginning Sept. 4, the day after Labor Day.

If the 108-degree high forecasted for Friday, Aug. 31, proves accurate, it will break the record for the date of 107 degrees, set in 1888, according to AccuWeather.

Pomegranates are in a very enviable position. Volume continues to rise as plantings over the past decade mature, and demand is rising right along with it.

On Aug. 29, King City, CA-based Metz Fresh LLC voluntarily recalled spinach sold to retail and foodservice due to a positive find for salmonella during a routine, third-party test, although no resulting illnesses had been reported.

Labeled under the "Metz Fresh" brand, the 10- and 16-ounce bags and 2.5- and four-pound cartons of the product in question were distributed in Canada and the United States.

The packages bear tracking codes 12208114, 12208214 and 12208314, and Metz Fresh has set up a hotline, 831/386-1018, to address concerns.