Early in November, the Food & Drug Administration sent a warning letter to lettuce producers in the Salinas Valley expressing concern over foodborne illnesses and outbreaks associated with lettuce.

Since the FDA letter, there has been an article in The Wall Street Journal titled "When Eating Your Vegetables Makes You Sick." And an article in The Los Angeles Times in late November quoted a Los Angeles County Department of Health official as saying that lettuce was the likely culprit in a number of Hepatitis A outbreaks in his county.

WASHINGTON -- Before 2002, studies showed that Americans' daily consumption of fruits and vegetables was on the decline, but a new report shows a shift in eating patterns as more Americans are eating fruits and vegetables.

The report found a rise in overall fruit and vegetable consumption for the first time in 15 years, with a combined increase of 1 percent in annual eating per capita between 2002 and 2004.

BC Hot House Foods Inc. in Surrey, British Columbia, has announced the appointment of Brian Beggs as president.

With the concurrence and support of the board of directors, Al Vangelos, acting president and chief executive officer of BC Hot House Foods, announced the appointment of Mr. Beggs as president effective Dec. 15.

A party of eight representatives of the U.S. Potato Board returned Dec. 3 from a weeklong meeting in England with the British Potato Council.

One of those traveling from the United States was Larry Alsum, owner of Alsum Produce Inc. in Friesland, WI, who is on the U.S. Potato Board's executive committee and is chairman of the board's research committee. Mr. Alsum said that the board's executive committee leaders met with representatives of the British Potato Council to discuss common issues and to tour British potato operations and supermarkets.

WASHINGTON -- A new study by the Institute of Medicine is calling for sweeping new changes to counteract the insidious marketing of junk food that is influencing the nation's children to eat high-calorie, less-nutrition foods.

This is an "all-hands-on-deck" issue, IOM Committee Chair J. Michael McGinnis said Dec. 6. "Parents have a central role in the turnaround required, but so do the food, beverage and restaurant industries."