WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) criticized the Food & Drug Administration's response to this summer's Salmonella outbreak at a Sept. 17 hearing, here, and announced plans to introduce a bill to split up FDA's food and drug programs to elevate food safety in the government agency. Rep. DeLauro plans to introduce a bill later this month that would consolidate food regulation within the Department of Health & Human Services as well as require new mandates for traceability, inspections and imported foods. At the hearing, several members of Congress grilled David Acheson, FDA's

SALINAS, CA -- It's been more than three years since the nationally syndicated radio show "The Produce Pair" has been heard on the radio. For San Francisco Bay area listeners, that drought is about to end. Produce industry veteran Dan (The Produce Man) Avakian and radio partner Mark (Guido the Gardener) Ferro are teaming up again to return to the airwaves in late October or early November. This time the duo will air on KTRB (860 AM), a 50,000-watt station based in San Francisco. Though at the outset the program won't be syndicated nationally, a podcast of each show will be available for

International Fruit Genetics, a major table grape and stone fruit breeding organization in Bakersfield, CA, said that its new table grape variety called Sweet Sunshine has surpassed expectations. The first commercial crop of Sweet Sunshine has been harvested in Arvin, CA, by Grapery, a grape producer owned by Jack Pandol. Sweet Sunshine is a mid-season, naturally large, elongated, white seedless grape that ripens with similar timing to Thompson seedless but is said to be larger, crunchier and more flavorful. David Cain, breeder and general manager of International Fruit Genetics, said in a

Let's face it, some people are just born into this world to fill some pretty big boots. Reagan Bush, who joined the sales team at Harvest Select in Monte Vista, CO, this past May, can give some insight if you're a tad skeptical. Mr. Bush, who hails from Texas but is no relation to the current president of the United States, does have some incontrovertible ties to America's 40th president and 33rd governor of the state of California, however. Mr. Bush was born Nov. 3, 1980, the day Ronald Reagan was elected president. The historic moniker was bestowed upon Mr. Bush by his grandfather, with the

Food safety remains in the spotlight this year, in part due to the most recent high-profile foodborne illness outbreak linked to fresh produce. Substantial changes are needed to restore consumer confidence in produce safety, and to address regulators' and legislators' concerns. An interactive town hall meeting and other educational workshops at Produce Marketing Association's 2008 Fresh Summit international convention and exposition, to be held Oct. 24-27 in Orlando, FL, will tackle this issue head on. "We continue to discuss ways to improve food safety practices within the produce industry

The 2008 fall produce season is underway and should be highlighted by good quantities of high-quality produce, even though some scattered areas around south Jersey, where the majority of the state's commercial crops are grown, received significant hail damage Aug. 10 to crops at certain farms. Even so, the state still has seen generally good growing conditions this year and is well represented in the marketplace with ample quantities of fruits and vegetables available for wholesale and retail purchase. Some crops, though, such as peaches, tomatoes, peppers, pickles, cucumbers and squash, were