The late-August arrival of the first charter shipment of Chilean avocados assured Henry Avocado customers that their late summer and fall promotions around the country would not be affected by the widely reported mid-July freeze in Chile.

On hand to inspect the first charter arrival Aug. 30 at the port of Los Angeles, Phil Henry of Henry Avocado Corp. said that while the volume of the Chilean imports would be lower than last year due to the freeze, he expected adequate, promotable volume similar to the 2005 season.

It's been little more than half a year since Lone Star Citrus Growers in Mission, TX, broke ground for its new 120,000-square-foot packing facility, and business partners Jud Flowers, Trent Bishop and T.J. Flowers are really upbeat about future prospects.

WASHINGTON -- Health & Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt pointed to his tour of a lettuc-e-processing plant as an example of the life-cycle approach to food safety that should be incorporated in a plan to improve the safety of imports.

At a Sept. 11 press briefing, Mr. Leavitt explained the report's fundamental change in import policing. The Interagency Working Group on Import Safety, made up of senior administration officials, forwarded the report to the White House less than two months after it was charged with developing a plan to improve the safety of imports.

The new Federal Food Code will change how restaurants handle cut tomatoes in light of recent outbreaks, and a new report finds that tomatoes -- either whole or precut from fields in Florida, Ohio and Virginia -- supplied to restaurants were responsible for the past four salmonella outbreaks.

In 2005 and 2006, four large outbreaks of salmonella infections from eating raw tomatoes at restaurants resulted in 459 culture-confirmed cases of salmonellosis in 21 states, according to a Sept. 7 report issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

The U.S. Department of Justice will not prosecute 10 executives at Cincinnati- based Chiquita Brands International who were involved in a payoff of Colombian terrorists, according to Associated Press reports.

The decision was part of a sentencing memo that urged U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth to fine Chiquita $25 million and have the company serve five years probation. The sentencing hearing is set for Sept. 17. If accepted, the fine would mark the largest criminal penalty ever imposed under U.S. global terrorism sanctions laws.

NAPLES, FL -- Members of the Florida Tomato Exchange and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange met for their annual membership meetings at the Joint Tomato Conference here at the Ritz-Carlton Naples during the morning of Sept. 6.

Attendees of the FTE's meeting were addressed by John Himmelberg of the law firm of O'Connor & Hannan LLP, who discussed pending legislation and other activities in Washington, DC, that affect the produce industry.