Watsonville, CA-based Driscoll Strawberry Associates Inc. has announced that Steve Trede has joined its category management team as category development manager. Mr. Trede has worked in the produce industry for more than 25 years for companies such as Desert Glory, Del Monte Fresh Produce and the California Strawberry Commission. A food technology graduate of Iowa State University, Mr. Trede most recently worked selling tomatoes for Desert Glory. Mr. Trede started with Driscoll Aug. 6. as its category development manager for the northeastern United States. He fills the role previously held by

Watsonville, CA-based Driscoll Strawberry Associates Inc. is anticipating a bumper crop of strawberries and raspberries carrying into the fall months. In strawberries, the abundance is coming from all of the company's growing areas in California. The surge in strawberries includes a big comeback crop in the Watsonville-Salinas and Santa Maria areas, as well as a fall crop in Oxnard, CA, for which volumes will be ramping up soon, said Tim Youmans, Driscoll's national retail sales manager. The message to retailers and consumers is that they are going to see a good supply of strawberries

The late-August arrival of the first charter shipment of Chilean avocados assured Henry Avocado customers that their late summer and fall promotions around the country would not be affected by the widely reported mid-July freeze in Chile. On hand to inspect the first charter arrival Aug. 30 at the port of Los Angeles, Phil Henry of Henry Avocado Corp. said that while the volume of the Chilean imports would be lower than last year due to the freeze, he expected adequate, promotable volume similar to the 2005 season. "The worst is over," Mr. Henry said. "The shortfall impacted the supply for

It's been little more than half a year since Lone Star Citrus Growers in Mission, TX, broke ground for its new 120,000-square-foot packing facility, and business partners Jud Flowers, Trent Bishop and T.J. Flowers are really upbeat about future prospects. Jud Flowers is the company's president, Mr. Bishop is vice president and sales manager, and T.J. Flowers serves as assistant sales manager and transportation specialist. They are joined by Susie Marroquin who serves as the company's controller. These four individuals bring 74 years worth of experience in the citrus industry to the table. "A

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. "It's a change from an

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. But CDC went one step further and