With increasing consumption of fresh produce as its top priority, on Nov. 15, International Fresh Produce Association CEO Cathy Burns and Vonnie Estes, vice president of innovation, attended a roundtable meeting focused on U.S. and Canadian consumer food affordability with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The meeting was hosted by Michael Janis and the San Francisco Market.   

Monterey Mushrooms announced that George Haggar has been appointed president of Monterey Fresh. He will work alongside Monterey Mushrooms’ founder and CEO Shah Kazemi. Haggar will relocate from Australia to the U.S. to lead the fresh mushroom production business, which operates eight growing sites throughout North America.

Leftover berries and bananas? Here’s a wonderful way to put them to delicious use. This jazzed up version of banana bread has a kiss of lemon and cinnamon, and bursts of luscious berries, to add to the usual moist, dense loaf. The cranberries can be fresh or frozen.

Instacart is upgrading its AI-powered search with a new vision capability, which should allow users to search the platform using their own handwritten recipes and shopping lists. The company said it wants to leverage the latest AI advancements to deepen the relationship people have with food and grocery shopping.

Its early access and adoption of the new vision-enabled GPT-4 Turbo with Vision (GPT-4V) is the latest such example.

Lineage, one of the leading temperature-controlled industrial REIT and integrated solutions providers worldwide, celebrated the grand opening of its newest facility in Houston on Nov. 14.

Gotham Greens launched a new line of salad kits, available in three varieties: Green Goddess, Southwest Ranch and Caesar. The new salad kits are packed with fresh ingredients, including Gotham Greens greenhouse-grown lettuce and fresh flavor-filled toppings and dressings, for convenient home-cooked meals or lunches on the go. The salad kits are available at select Kroger and Jewel-Osco stores, with additional distribution expected in early 2024.