Building on its success in the United Kingdom, Wild Rocket Foods soon will launch its first fresh produce-processing facility in the United States in Riverside, CA. The company celebrated its upcoming fall launch on Wednesday, Aug. 29, with an event that included city officials. Wild Rocket will supply whole produce, fresh-cut produce, fresh dips and salsas, plus freshly squeezed juices and lemonades, and it will have a mix of both conventionally and organically grown products. Wild Rocket's parent company, Nature's Way Foods, based in West Sussex, England, is the main fresh produce supplier

City of Industry, CA-based Los Angeles Salad Co. recently recalled its "Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots" with sell-by date codes of Aug. 8, 2007, and Aug. 16, 2007, because the product may have been contaminated with the bacteria Shigella. Shigella infection can cause diarrhea (which may be bloody), fever, nausea and vomiting. Illness usually lasts from four to 14 days. Infection can occur after eating and drinking food and water that is contaminated with Shigella, and can be passed from person to person. The recall was initiated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency after it was discovered that

MONT-TREMBLANT, QC -- Sobeys Inc., Canada's second-largest supermarket chain, recently went through a major shakeup in its produce division, both nationally and in Ontario. Joseph Sbrocchi, Sobeys' national senior director of produce procurement, tendered his resignation Aug. 20, while two key staffers in its Ontario division, Stephen Rodrigues, its vice president of merchandising and replenishment for produce, floral and bulk, and Brian McDonald, its director of produce operations in Ontario, were let go within an hour of each other on Aug. 22. According to Sobeys' web site, the company "owns

In Mexico, Hurricane Dean dealt a sizable blow to limes, but its effects on other crops appear to be negligible or non-existent. J.B. Cutsinger, who oversees the lime program for Burlingame, CA-based Splendid Products LLC, said that Splendid's limes, grown in Veracruz on Mexico's eastern border, took "a good hit" from the storm. "It takes a few days to assess the damage," Mr. Cutsinger said. "I guarantee that at least 50 percent of the crop was damaged." Splendid grows limes year round in the Veracruz area. "We were well into this particular crop," Mr. Cutsinger said. "It hit the bloom, and

CHICAGO -- While a few states will produce more apples in the 2007 harvest than in the previous year, the vast majority will produce fewer apples, and the 2007 national U.S. apple crop could be down as much as 10 percent from the previous year, according to estimates released by the U.S. Apple Association. "By historical standards, the 2007 U.S. apple crop is a light crop," USApple Vice President James R. Cranney Jr. told those attending the association's Apple Crop Outlook & Marketing Conference, held Aug. 23-24 at the Four Seasons Hotel, here. He cited a spring frost in parts of the

MONT-TREMBLANT, QC -- For the first time in its 60-year history, the Quebec Produce Marketing Association has a female president, Bernadette Hamel, who also serves as the senior director of produce purchasing and merchandising in the province of Quebec for Metro Inc. Ms. Hamel took over as president Aug. 25 when she ceremoniously received the gavel from the association's outgoing president, Michel Levac, at the closing banquet here at the Fairmount Tremblant. Ms. Hamel's first words to the 440 members and guests assembled at the event were a quite appropriate line from a song by Canadian