WASHINGTON -- Daily headlines on the widening pet food recall pushed the U.S. Senate to pass a prescription drug safety bill May 9 that would give the Food & Drug Administration new, far-reaching authority over food safety. By a vote of 94-0, the Senate approved an amendment that would establish an early warning and notification system for human and pet foods, establish fines for companies that don't promptly report contaminated products, improve inspections and monitoring of imports, and set pet food safety standards. "We're concerned about it," said Robert Guenther, senior vice president of

Is your customer focus faltering? Has it lost steam lately? Then you had better pay attention. Have you ever had a day when suddenly the company apple cart tilts and totally collapses? That is called a crisis, and that is when we all run over to the cart, stare at it, then have a meeting to discuss how to fix it. There is only one problem: After the meeting, everyone begins concentrating on apple carts and only apple carts. Whenever a new directive is launched from management that demands immediate action on a specific topic, we tend to drop whatever else we are doing to spend countless hours

PHILADELPHIA -- The story begs a pun related to the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. But the saga of the future of a new fresh fruit and vegetable market for Philadelphia is so incongruous and unpredictable that it is time to move beyond puns. "The eagle has returned to the property," a dead-serious Jimmy Storey told The Produce News May 9 shortly after he met with the board of the Philadelphia Fresh Food Terminal Corp. Mr. Storey, who is president of the board, owns Quaker City Produce on the Philadelphia Regional Produce Center. The property in question is the old

SOLEDAD, CA -- In an industry that is increasingly moving toward transparency of its operations, Salinas, CA-based Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc. hosted a media tour of its Monterey County operations on Thursday, April 26. While by its nature the tour helped to promote the company, the tour also was designed to offer insight into fresh produce operations industrywide. Top executives for Dole fielded questions from local, national and trade media while providing a daylong tour that included a visit to one of its 20- acre Romaine fields as well as a tour of its processing plant, both here in Soledad

Wal-Mart has entered the retail produce fray with the opening of seven Supercenters in Ontario. Company officials from Wal-Mart Canada Corp., which is part of the firm's international division, told The Produce News that the first three Supercenters were opened Nov. 8 in Stouffville, London and Ancaster. Another four have opened in Sarnia, Scarborough, Vaughn and Brampton since. "We will have 28 Supercenters this year," said Greg Maffey, one of Wal-Mart Canada's two produce buyers. "We have 21 more opening this year. Ten will be expansions, 10 will be new and one will be a 'relo' store," which

Chiquita Brands International Inc., based in Cincinnati, has agreed to sell its 12 refrigerated cargo vessels for $227 million. The ships will be chartered back from an alliance formed by Eastwind Maritime Inc. and NYKLauritzenCool AB. The parties also entered a long-term strategic agreement in which the alliance will serve as Chiquita's preferred supplier in ocean shipping to and from Europe and North America. Fernando Aguirre, Chiquita's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a press release that this long-term shipping agreement "is an important step in the execution of our strategy