If you already love Feta cheese and haven’t tried whipping it yet, your life is about to change!

The National Watermelon Promotion Board sponsored the 47th Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 30 in Washington, DC, drawing more than 11,000 marathoners, nearly 5,000 10k runners and 982 Ultramarathoner finishers. It was the eighth year the NWPB sponsored the event, and its Team Watermelon was on hand and gave out an estimated 28,000 samples of watermelon to runners, friends, family and supporters from all 50 states and more than 50 countries.

Baldor Specialty Foods partnered with Farm to People in order to provide home chefs with better access to Baldor’s exceptional selection of products — just in time for the holidays.

Avocados continue to grow in popularity and are purchased year-round in the United States. However, new data suggest seasonal influences impact retail sales of avocados, driven by supply chain dynamics and shopper purchase behaviors. These influences have steered the category into an evolution of seasonality over the past four years.

The International Fresh Produce Association shared its initial reaction to the newly published rule on the Requirements for Additional Traceability Records for Certain Foods (Food Traceability Final Rule), which was released Nov. 15 and sets additional traceability recordkeeping requirements for companies that manufacture, process, pack or hold foods included on the Food Traceability List, which includes fresh produce commodities.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture imposed sanctions on three produce businesses for failing to meet contractual obligations to the sellers of produce they purchased and failing to pay reparation awards issued under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. These sanctions include suspending the businesses’ PACA licenses and barring the principal operators of the businesses from engaging in PACA-licensed business or other activities without approval from USDA.

The following businesses and individuals are currently restricted from operating in the produce industry: