Gills Onions has completed the purchase of a 200,000-square-foot packing and cold storage facility in San Joaquin, CA, that will supplement onion production at its Oxnard, CA, headquarters location. Located 35 miles west of Fresno and in close proximity to Gills' major onion growing production in the San Joaquin Valley, the newly purchased facility will be used primarily for industrial products, including whole, peeled and diced onion production. The facility is scheduled to begin operations in September of this year, with budget and related planning currently being analyzed. "The addition of

Remember when avocados weren't good for you? Well, actually, they were always good for you, but there was a time when lots of food writers and even nutritionists didn't think so. Because of their high oil content, they were thought to be fattening and hard on the arteries, so to speak. But avocados benefited enormously from a vast accumulation of scientific studies over the last decade or two, differentiating between what are now frequently referred to as "good fats" and "bad fats," and confirming that the oils in avocados are actually the healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated types

Guys ogled, women frowned and in the end, the label featuring an updated, attractive Mother Nature in her mid-20s was banished from the fruit juice line of Eagle, ID-based Global Juices & Fruits LLC. The Mother Nature graphic was replaced in January by artwork deemed more appropriate: depictions of pomegranates and fruits such as cranberries, blueberries and mangos that are mixed with pomegranate juice to form the "Earthly Delights" line. "[Mother Nature] wasn't sultry but she was attractive," said Chuck Watson, president of Global Juices & Fruits. Mr. Watson said that he knew that the juices

Four Seasons Produce, a full-line produce distributor based in Ephrata, PA, expanded its service offerings to customers in the summer of 2006 when it formed Sunrise Logistics. Now, a year-and-a-half later, the wholly owned subsidiary of Four Seasons is making a name for itself in the industry for the breadth of high-level service it offers. Chuck Holt, general manager of Sunrise Logistics, said that the entity was born out of the fact that customers would see Four Seasons' trucks on the roads, and "we began to receive inquiries from customers about cross- docking and deliveries. We started by

United Potato Growers of America announced the expansion of its Potato Partners program at the second annual North American Potato Grower Summit held Feb. 11 in Las Vegas, NV. President and Chief Executive Officer Lee Frankel told The Produce News that the 2008 program is comprised of three partners. This is the second year of participation for WinField Solutions. New to the program this year are Bayer CropScience and AMVAC Chemical Corp. "The thought was to look for a new way to work with corporate partners," Mr. Frankel said. "This helps growers understand what's happening in the market." He

ORANGE BEACH, AL -- One of the more important facets of any food-safety or traceability program is documenting what has been done and then keeping accurate records of it, points which were stressed by speakers at the National Watermelon Association's second annual food-safety seminar, which kicked off its 94th annual convention, held here Feb. 20 at the Perdido Beach Resort. Approximately 50 attendees listened to presentations by Beth Bland, program coordinator for the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association; Kathleen Staley, senior advisor for quality management for the U.S. Department