No contaminants were found on fruits and vegetables tested by the Food & Drug Administration as part of a six-week bioterrorism drill, according to FDA officials. ?This is very good news," said Kathy Means, vice president of the Produce Marketing Association, who added that this just reinforces that levels of contaminants are either extremely low or non-existent on fruits and vegetables. Last October, FDA started sampling a handful of food commodities " chosen as high-risk foods " for chemical and microbiological contaminants. The agency also began checking the food companies? security

PHILADELPHIA Frank Weichec Jr. wasn't around to speak for himself for a story on his retirement. He was with his beautiful wife, Alice, cruising his 41-foot motor yacht off South Florida. Instead, his son, Chip Weichec, hunkered down in Norm & Lou?s Restaurant, the social center of the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market, here, to discuss his father?s career. While Frank attended Philadelphia?s Drexel University " first as an engineering student, who switched to business administration " he began dating Patricia Hunter. Ms. Hunter?s father, Robert Hunter, had started the produce company

Global Berry Farms, based in Naples, FL, announced the hiring of Janis McIntosh as associate marketing manager, a new position. She will be located in Salinas, CA, and will be responsible for coordinating packaging, trade show, and consumer and trade marketing efforts. Prior to joining Global Berry Farms, Ms. McIntosh worked at Coastal Berry in Watsonville, CA, for nine years, where she was responsible for the company?s marketing projects. Among her accomplishments at Coastal were transitioning the company to a new corporate identity and logo, and the planning and development of the Strawberry

PHILADELPHIA " The venue for a lunch meeting with The Produce News on Feb. 15 was a fitting scene for Bill Weyland. Across the street from the restaurant was the historic U.S. Customs House, quite relevant to the general manager of imports for DNE World Fruit Sales Inc., based in Ft. Pierce, FL. Mr. Weyland works from an office in North Brunswick, NJ. In mid-February, as Mr. Weyland prepared to travel to Chile to finalize DNE?s plans to begin importing Chilean clementines this summer and to travel to see his Spanish clementine suppliers, he reviewed the Spanish clementine season as it drew to

The Dispute Resolution Corp., the Ottowa-based organization that was created five years ago to facilitate a timely and affordable dispute resolution process in the Canadian produce trade, will lose a key member of its staff March 4 with the departure of Chuck Dentelbeck, director of operations, who announced Feb. 10 that he will leave the organization to start his own consulting company. ?I have been thinking about starting my own company for a while," Mr. Dentelbeck said Feb. 14. "People always told me that I should start my own company. I had the idea 10 years ago, but at the time I didn?t

Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., a leading global producer and distributor of high-quality fresh and fresh-cut fruit and vegetables, and a top producer and distributor of prepared fruit, vegetables and other products in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, reported solid financial and operating results for the fourth quarter and year-ended Dec. 31. Net sales for the 2004 fourth quarter were $818.2 million, compared with $578.7 million for the same period last year. The 41 percent sales increase was due to the inclusion of Del Monte Foods Europe sales of $89 million, higher sales and volumes of