Chicago-based Idaho Culinary Celebration expands Gem State markets
Spotlighting all-Idaho food items, the recent two-day Idaho Culinary Celebration in Chicago brought expanded market focus to its primary sponsors, USA Onions/Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee and the Idaho Potato Commission, as well as the Idaho State Department of Agriculture and a large group of Gem State agricultural companies and commodity groups.
Earthbound Farm’s Goodman discusses big organic at NYC event
Myra Goodman, co-founder of Earthbound Farm, a leading organic food company, will be a featured presenter at the fourth annual “Changing the Way We Eat” event, an upcoming TEDx Manhattan talk in New York City that addresses issues in sustainable food and farming.
Farm Star Living app delivers farm activities and farm-to-table restaurants
Farm Star Living, the new lifestyle brand that celebrates American farming and farmers, has launched an app that provides easy, quick access to hundreds of farm-to-table restaurants in major cities throughout the U.S. as well as hundreds of farms open to the public for exciting activities and fun.
The app complements the Farm Star Living website, www.farmstarliving.com, which satisfies Americans eager to know who's behind their food, where it's grown and how to support local farmers and farm-fresh food.
Envy apple earns nod for flavor
There was nothing bitter about the rivalry when Jazz, Pacific Rose and Envy apples went stem-to-stem recently in a unique flavor-savoring competition hosted by noted author and producer Arleana Waller.
While Envy won top honors at an evening Waller designed to convey the value apples bring to many areas of a woman's life, all three brands enjoyed prominence and polish.
PrimusLabs continues advancement of food safety with PrimusGFS Standard Version 2.1
PrimusLabs announced that the PrimusGFS Standard version 2.1 audit scheme has been successfully benchmarked to the Consumer Goods Forum’s Global Food Safety Initiative Guidance Document Sixth Edition. GFSI made the announcement effective Feb. 20, 2014.
Vision Import Group’s new Florida office picking up momentum quickly
Vision Import Group LLC, headquartered in River Edge, NJ, opened its Lakeland, FL, office in August 2013. The company hired Bruce Letchworth to oversee sales. A long-time retail professional, Letchworth was previously with Supervalu and prior to that with Publix Super Markets and Save-a-lot, making him a perfect candidate to work with retail sales customers in the Southeast. He is joined in sales at the Southeast branch of Vision by Lindsay Love, who also previously worked for Supervalu. Love also assists in administrative tasks at the office.
Spice World welcomes two new third-generation family members to its staff
Louis Hymel, director of purchasing and marketing for Spice World Inc., headquartered in Orlando, FL, said the company is eagerly anticipating the Southeast Produce Council’s 2014 Southern Exposure annual conference and expo. The event will be held Feb. 27 to March 1 at the Caribe Royale Conference Center and Hotel in Orlando.
Stemilt’s premium pear program leads industry to huge category increases
Stemilt’s premium river valley pear program helped the industry achieve huge category increases through the first four months of the season, according to the company’s recent analysis of retail scan data from Nielsen Perishables Group.
D’Anjou pears were up 24 percent in volume and nearly 26 percent in dollar sales year over year according to national composite data from September through December 2013. Other key pear varieties, including Red d’Anjou, Bartlett and Bosc, also realized increases in both categories.
Heritage: A Greek’s long path to success in organic production in America
The Greek economy was ravaged by World War I. In 1922, Michael Chrysantaki, a 16-year-old boy, left his family and home in the town of Levidi in the mountainous Peloponnese region of southern Greece. This is where the cities of Sparta and Olympia flourished in ancient times.
Little did Michael know that his step aboard a ship in the port of Piraeus was the first step toward what would become, via a radically unlikely journey, a trendsetting produce company in Mexico called Wholesum Family Farms Inc.
Bi-Lo, Delhaize merger includes FTC settlement
Bi-Lo Holdings LLC, the parent of BI-LO and Winn Dixie grocery store chains, has agreed to sell 12 supermarkets in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that its proposed $265 million acquisition of 154 stores from Delhaize America would harm competition in several local markets in those states.