Brooks Tropicals welcomes papayas back with open arms
Eight months after a Category 5 hurricane devastated its papaya groves in Belize, Brooks Tropicals is gearing up for the return of the fruit to its product line.
Imagination Farms expands Disney program beyond U.S. borders
Imagination Farms is continuing its mission to increase children's consumption of fresh produce by taking its message and "Disney" brand fresh produce program to consumers in Mexico.
Inaugural Pebble Beach Food & Wine festival draws over 3,000
PEBBLE BEACH, CA -- More than 3,000 aficionados of fine wine and gourmet food attended the inaugural four-day Pebble Beach Food & Wine festival that ran here March 27-30.
Ticket purchasers sampled wares at the Lexus Grand Tasting held both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Purveyors of wine and food were at the festival by invitation only.
The festival was heavily weighted toward wine, with some 250 wineries represented and some 70 sommeliers and 10 master sommeliers in attendance. There also were 53 chefs on hand.
New Listeria policy may prove costly to fresh-cut processors
WASHINGTON -- A new policy by the Food & Drug Administration may force fresh-cut processors to conduct costly lot testing for Listeria.
The FDA announced in February a new policy that would loosen the zero- tolerance policy for Listeria in some ready-to-eat foods. While food processors hailed the new risk-based policy as a step toward harmonizing with other trading partners, the United Fresh Produce Association said that fresh-cut processors might be hurt by the new draft compliance policy guide.
Richard Guzman spent 27 years selling produce in Los Angeles
Richard Guzman, a salesman at Go-Fresh Produce Inc. on the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market for the last seven years and a 27-year veteran of the Los Angeles wholesale produce industry, died of a heart attack in a Los Angeles hospital March 12. He was 49.
Keystone and Cowart team to market 'Vidalia Sugar Sweets'
Keystone Fruit Marketing, based in Greencastle, PA, has teamed with J. Cowart Farms in Lyons, GA, to market Cowart's "Vidalia Sugar Sweets" sweet onions from the famed Vidalia, GA, onion-growing district.
Seven-year curse appears to be over for Philadelphia market
PHILADELPHIA -- After seven years of ups and downs with regard to the prospect of building a new wholesale produce market here, it appears that a viable site has been procured and that groundbreaking will occur as early as this summer.
PBH promotes Theresa Kaufmann
WILMINGTON, DE -- The Produce for Better Health Foundation has announced the appointment of Theresa Kaufmann as its new manager of development.
INDUSTRY VIEWPOINT: Preserving the garden in the Garden State
As I travel the country representing the New Jersey Farm Bureau and New Jersey's farmers, I'm proud to tell people I'm from the great Garden State of New Jersey. And I too often get jokes about the turnpike and questions about what we grow here amidst our cities and shopping malls. While it's true that New Jersey is smack-dab between New York and Philadelphia, peppered with suburbs, we also have assets nothing short of remarkable: amazing garden oases, the very reason we are called the Garden State.
1,000 rally to help save NJDA
An estimated 1,000 people descended April 1 on the state capitol in Trenton, NJ, to show their support for the New Jersey Department of Agriculture. New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine has proposed eliminating the department, along with the state's Department of Commerce and Department of Personnel, to help close a $2.7 billion budget deficit. The rally held on a drizzly, overcast day, saw farmers, wholesalers, nursery owners and other agricultural supporters, some riding tractors and others waving signs, in support of the respected state ag department.