Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer has announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is planning to purchase 2.9 million pounds of fresh-cut apple slices in two-ounce bags, which it will donate to child nutrition and other domestic nutrition assistance programs. The purchase is a pilot program and will be made with currently available farm bill funds. Section 4404 of the 2008 farm bill provided an additional $193 million in fiscal year 2009 for the purchase of fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts for use in domestic nutrition assistance programs. This pilot program will help test the

The SE Regional Fruit & Vegetable Conference, sponsored by the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Association and the South Carolina Peach Council, has announced that the 2009 trade show has been completely sold out. The trade show will provide conference attendees with the opportunity to compare products, talk with industry representatives, observe demonstrations and learn about the latest in fresh produce technology while networking with other growers. It will be held Jan. 9-11 in Savannah, GA, and also will offer informative educational sessions, including a special food-safety focus forum that has

Bridgeport, NJ-based Albert's Organics is now Primus-certified at its six distribution centers located throughout the country. According to Greg Cota, vice president of supply chain logistics, "The Primus Labs program gives us the ability to have a third-party certification agency come in and audit our program to verify that our program is working and to validate our own internal audits of our food-safety program. The program audit creates a comprehensive and detailed report that we can use to focus on potential areas of improvement as well as producing a score that we use to set and measure

Salinas, CA, is once again in the hot seat. Canadian and U.S. officials are investigating an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 30 people, nine of whom were hospitalized, in southeastern Ontario. The outbreak began in the regional municipality of Niagara, which encompasses the tourist attraction Niagara Falls, at the end of October, and "the last probable case" was reported on Nov. 13, Rene Cardinal, the acting national manager of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's fresh fruit and vegetable program told The Produce News Nov. 24. "We have nine cases hospitalized and two with [hemolytic

TUXPAN, JALISCO, MEXICO -- The acquisition of the exclusive rights to several University of Florida-developed blueberry varieties that require few to no chill hours to thrive has enabled SunnyRidge Farm Inc. to develop a Mexican blueberry program that it debuted Nov. 21, here. At 19 degrees latitude, the blueberry bushes, which have begun to yield their first crop, may be some of the few blueberry plants to successfully grow this close to the equator. Paul Lyrene, a professor of horticultural sciences at the University of Florida, developed the varieties over many years. SunnyRidge acquired

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that Florida avocado producers voted to continue their federal marketing order program. The referendum was held from Sept. 22 through Oct. 6. In order to be eligible to vote, a producer must have produced avocados within the production area during the representative period of April 1, 2007, through March 31, 2008. Twenty-five percent of the eligible producers, representing 31 percent of the volume of avocados shipped during the period, participated in the referendum, and 96 percent of the producers who voted, representing 98 percent of the