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.

Sunlight International Sales Inc. in McFarland, CA, the marketing arm of Jakov P. Dulcich & Sons, has hired Bert Boyd, a former executive of American Stores and Topco Associates LLC, as vice president of marketing development, according to Nick Dulcich, a principal in Sunlight and also a partner in Jakov P. Dulcich & Sons. Mr. Boyd started with Sunlight Sept. 10.

Do you know a young person in the industry who is making a mark in produce? We would like to hear from you.

Please contact Editor John Groh at 201/986-7990 or [email protected] to discuss your idea for our Generation Next feature.