Los Alamitos, CA-based Frieda?s Inc. is bringing back its Waterbabies personal-sized watermelons.

Exclusively from Frieda?s, Waterbabies are grown in Panama. The company introduced Waterbabies to the industry last April.

The solid, bright-green, smooth-skin melons are round in shape and approximately eight inches in size. The melons are seedless and sweet with a high Brix content. Each melon is labeled with serving suggestions and a PLU number.

Last year the melons sold well at retail.

LA MIRADA, CA " Food safety took center stage during an ambitious webcast co-hosted by the United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association and the Fresh Produce & Floral Council, bridging the 3,000-mile gap between the headquarters of the two organizations.

The Feb. 2 bi-monthly membership luncheon meeting of the FPFC, held here at the Gateway Plaza Holiday Inn, provided a live audience for the webcast, which electronically brought together experts from various parts of the country.

A fledgling growers? cooperative brought representation of more than 50 percent of the San Luis Valley?s potato acreage to its initial gathering Jan. 12, and the organization?s president said that by early February, he expected 70-75 percent of the acreage involved.

The purpose of United Fresh Potato Growers of Colorado Inc., which is similar to co-ops formed in Idaho and Oregon, is to bring solidarity to the area?s growers, according to the organization?s president, Center, CO-area grower Dave Warsh.

There is little doubt that the Wal-Mart mandate " as it has been called " is the impetus that has propelled radio frequency identification technology into the limelight and produced significant development in the past year.

There also seems to be general agreement that the use of RFID will offer unknown value in many different areas in the years to come, which is a very good thing because for the fresh produce industry, the value proposition as put forth by the Wal-Mart mandate isn?t evident.

Produce companies struggling to understand the kind of records they need to maintain under the bioterrorism law got an opportunity to ask top legal experts during a Jan. 26 teleconference sponsored by the International Fresh-cut Produce Association.

A recently released competitive analysis done by the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee stated that retailers "can enjoy case lifts [increased volume] on promoted potatoes up to 345 percent above non-advertised weeks, a rate almost three times greater than that of another leading vegetable, lettuce."

Moreover, the analysis noted, the lifts are experienced during summer months.