ROSEMONT, IL - US Foods plans to open a new distribution center in Seabrook, New Hampshire.  This development will better serve its customers throughout the New England area.

“We are thrilled US Foods has selected Seabrook as the hub of its New England operations,” said Bill Manzi, Seabrook town manager. “We look forward to partnering with them on a major economic development project that will bring quality jobs and much needed tax revenue to the Town of Seabrook.”

Currently the company services its New England customer base from a center located in Peabody, MA.  The facility there is approximately 188,000 square feet, and the new facility will be more than 500,000 square feet and include additional dry and cold storage, fleet fueling and maintenance areas, according to a press release.

“This new building will allow us to better serve our more than 2,000 customers throughout New England and operate from a more efficient and modern facility which will benefit the company, its customers and the nearly 300 employees in the Boston Division,” said John Glynn, President, Boston Division, US Foods.

US Foods is partnering with the ESI Group on the renovation of the new facility to make sure that it operates as efficiently as possible.  Construction is planned to begin at the end of June with a tentative opening in the first quarter of 2015.

US Foods

CHICAGO, IL - It is an exciting time in fresh produce, especially when it is your first time in Chicago! As the trade show portion of United Fresh Produce Association's annual convention and expo in Chicago wrapped up yesterday, attendees joined together to cast their votes throughout the show for fresh produce innovation and recognized this year's New Product Awards in five categories.

This year’s event represented 328 companies – a 15% growth in exhibitors over last year. Attendees matched San Diego numbers, which is over 4,500 attendees for the United Fresh show. 

The award categories were competitive and brought some of the best of our industries innovations to the forefront of the industry. The category awards were delivered in the areas of Best New Food Safety Solution, Best New Fruit Product, Best New Packaging, Best New Packing/Processing Equipment, and Best New Vegetable Product. More than 40 fresh fruit and vegetable innovations competed in the showcase.

The 2014 New Product Award winners announced today are:

Best New Food Safety Solution: FoodLink Fresh - FoodLink

Best New Fruit Product: Crunch Pak with Marvel Apple Snacker, Crunch Pak

Best New Packaging Product: Josie’s Organics Romaine Hearts, Braga Fresh Family Farms

Best New Packing/Processing Equipment: STRAWBERRY CAPPER Mod. Frazer, Turatti S.R.L.

Best New Vegetable Product: Y.E.L.O., Mastronardi Produce/Sunset

"These winning products have been selected by United attendees as outstanding representations of the new approaches, ideas and processes that are driving the fresh fruit and vegetable industry forward, and we applaud them for their product development," said John Toner, United's vice president of convention & industry relations. "From its very beginnings, the United show has been the undisputed home of innovation for the produce industry, and these awards continue to showcase the best and brightest minds in the produce business."

The new products and solutions that graced the show are evidence of the leaps and bounds the industry is taking in innovation, partnerships and fresh concepts.

Other great highlights hits from the event were keynote addresses from Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw, who offered his insights on the future trends in the supermarket retail industry, while The Packer named Tony Freytag, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Crunch Pak Sliced Apples, as the company’s Person of the Year. 

The Thursday evening festivities, brought together an amazing group of people for the Reception Honoring Women in Produce. While the reception honors all women working in the produce industry the event also recognizes one outstanding female industry leader. Teri Miller, Produce Category Manager, Delhaize America, received the award this year, presented by Lisa McNeece, Vice President, Foodservice and Industrial Sales, of Grimmway Enterprises Inc., who received the award in 2013.  The room was complete with industry leaders, up-and-comers, both female and male.

The Fresh Marketplace Learning Center and FreshTech Learning Center on the show floor offered a variety of perspectives from our industry peers ranging from opportunities to drive produce sales at the school level and new fresh-cut equipment design developments, to food safety issues, restaurant trends and a Women in Produce panel to inspire the next generation of produce professionals.

Thanks again, United, for creating an atmosphere for promoting innovation, the sharing of ideas and fresh produce!

Stay tuned for an upcoming article on some of my United Fresh product favorites, almost too many to count.

United Fresh

KINGSVILLE, ON - Mastronardi’s newest SUNSET® product Y.E.L.O. Youth Energy Life Om™ took this year’s Best New Vegetable award at United Fresh in Chicago.

“We’re honored to receive the Best New Vegetable Award for Y.E.L.O.™,” said CEO Paul Mastronardi. “We knew from the start that Y.E.L.O.™ had incredible color, flavor, and quality, and this award certainly validates that.”

Since its debut at 2013 PMA Fresh Summit, Y.E.L.O. has become known as A Taste of Sunshine™, bringing bright color and flavor to consumers across North America. In the video below, SUNSET® Girl, Milla Mastronardi, gives you an inside look at these new tomatoes and Mastronardi’s Top Seal Packaging. Check it out!

“Mastronardi Produce has been leading the greenhouse industry for 60 years and has certainly become known for their flavor and quality,” said John Toner, Vice President of United Fresh. “I’d like to congratulate them for leading innovation within the industry and introducing such a great new vegetable product to consumers everywhere.”

Paul Mastronardi continued, “Y.E.L.O.™ comes from the same greenhouse as Campari® brand cocktail tomatoes, so consumers know it’s a product they’ll love. With such a bright, unique color and nearly 50% more Vitamin C than other red tomatoes, Y.E.L.O.™ has definitely become a foodie and family classic.”

Y.E.L.O.™ brand cocktail tomatoes are currently sold in SUNSET® top seal clamshells as well as Campari® combo packs, offering consumers two bright colors in one package.

Congratulations on the award, Mastronardi!

Mastronardi Produce

CHRISTIANSTED, VIRGIN ISLANDS – Coosemans Worldwide has opened a new specialty and organic produce division under the California Specialty Farms (CSF) banner at the Los Angeles Produce Terminal Market.

Danny Coosemans and James Macek purchased California Specialty Farms and its processing and shipping facility in 2010, according to a press release.  CSF is the leading processor of the “California carrot,” along with varieties of hand-turned and carved produces specialties. 

“We had long been fans of California Specialty Farms products and personnel, so when the opportunity to purchase CSF arose, Danny and I jumped on it,” said Macek, president of Coosemans-Denver, Phoenix and CSF.  “The new location on the LA Market will help us to better serve the local and regional produce communities, and our product mix of organic and specialty produce (including a few new wrinkles), will be a nice addition to one of America’s most dynamic produce markets.”

Bruce Hoffman, partner and VP of CSF, brought in Martha Zavala as the Market Division’s General Manager.  Zavala, a Market veteran, has experience with Malibu Farms, Davalan and Fresh Point Los Angeles, accoding to a press release.

Coosemans Worldwide

California Speciality Farms

BRAZIL - Like most opening ceremonies, Brazil’s 2014 World Cup Opening Ceremony featured a wealth of colorful outfits, energetic performances, with an appearance by Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez, Claudia Leitte, and… wait, are those dancing fruits and veggies?!

“We Are One,” along with co-artists Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte.

Is this the World Cup or a produce aisle come to life? Just watch the video above. You’ll see special guest star appearances from…

• Lettuce
• Radishes
• Blueberries
• Endives
• Eggplant
• Peppers
• Broccoli

They all swirled and pranced around to appease the giant LED ball in the center of the field - its bright, flashy lights expressing joy and jubiliation at its dancing minions. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more absurd, the ball opened, and Pitbull emerged in all his glory. He was there to sing his World Cup theme song, “We Are One,” along with co-artists Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte.

I thought I saw enough produce in my dreams, but Brazil took it to a whole other level. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and other trade groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging Vermont’s GMO labeling law. The lawsuit comes at a time when new, recent surveys revealed that an overwhelming amount of Americans believe that genetically modified foods should be labeled accordingly.

GMA issued a statement calling Vermont’s mandatory GMA labeling law, Act 120, a “costly and misguided measure that will set the nation on a path toward a 50-state patchwork of GMO labeling policies that do nothing to advance the health and safety of consumers.” The Snack Food Association, International Dairy Foods Association, and the National Association of Manufacturers are supporting GMA’s charge against Vermont.

Vermont became the first U.S. state to require labels on foods containing genetically modified ingredients when Governor Peter Shumlin signed the bill into law last month. Maine and Connecticut have previously passed similar laws, but they won’t take effect until other states follow suit, according to local news station WPTZ. Vermont’s law takes effect in July 2016. Lawmakers in Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado, and New York are also considering labeling proposals, according to MintPress News.

“Act 120 imposes burdensome new speech requirements – and restrictions – that will affect, by Vermont’s count, eight out of every ten foods at the grocery store,” GMA said in a statement. “Yet Vermont has effectively conceded this law has no basis in health, safety, or science. That is why a number of product categories, including milk, meat, restaurant items and alcohol, are exempt from the law. This means that many foods containing GMO ingredients will not actually disclose that fact.”

Recent surveys by the International Food Information Council Foundation (IFIC) and Consumer Reports suggested that a majority of Americans support GMO labeling. IFIC’s survey showed that 63% of Americans endorse the FDA’s current voluntary policy for labeling genetically modified foods, according to a press release. Meanwhile, the April 2014 Consumer Reports survey revealed that 92% of respondents felt that foods made with GMOs should be labeled accordingly, MintPress News reports. The results also showed that 72% of those respondents felt that it was important or very important to avoid genetically engineered ingredients when making purchases.

However, GMA has gone on record to say that GM crops “are safe and have important benefits for people and our planet,” noting that they use “less water and fewer pesticides, reduce crop prices by 15-30 percent.” GMA also claims that a new study from Cornell University shows that New York’s proposed mandatory GMO labeling bill would cost families an average of $500 per year. The association encourages bipartisan federal legislation, the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, HR 4432, which would require a label on foods containing GM ingredients only if the FDA determines there is a health or safety risk.

In response to the lawsuit, the Organic Consumers Association’s National Director, Ronnie Cummins, said that the move is a “desperate attempt to protect corporate shareholder profits at the expense of consumers’ rights and health.” Cummins added, “More than 60 other countries have either banned GMOs, or require mandatory labeling of foods that contain them. Consumers in the U.S. have every reasonable right to the same information that consumers in other countries have about foods and ingredients that have not been subjected to independent, pre-market safety testing.”

Clearly, this will be a fight that will continue for months, perhaps even years, to come as both sides of the debate throw down the gauntlet. Though California lawmakers recently rejected a GMO labeling law (see the link below for our previous story), it remains to be seen how other U.S. states will weigh these heated opinions when voting for their respective proposals.

California GMO Labeling Bill Rejected

Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow as we continue following any further developments on this lawsuit.

Grocery Manufacturers Association    

CORNWALL, ONTARIO – Loblaw has been given a new deadline to begin construction on its Distribution Center in Cornwall. 

The city council has given Loblaw an extension on its original agreement of purchase and sale of the land.  The revised agreement sets a deadline of December 2015 to start building the distribution center in Cornwall’s business park.  The center must also be up and running by December 2016, according to Cornwall’s Seaway News.

Though the original agreement of purchase and sale expired in 2013, the city’s Economic Development Manager Mark Boileau is confident that the project will be completed.  He said, "They spent millions of dollars on that site, and Loblaw is a very reputable company - they're not in the business of wasting time, they're doing this for a reason.”

This will be a major commercial development for the 121-acre site.  “It’s a pretty good sized site,” said Boileau, noting that though it is not known how many people the distribution center will employ, it is just smaller than neighboring Supply Chain Management and Eleven Points Logistics.  Those companies together employ about 1,200 workers, according to Standard-Freeholder.com.

Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for more updates as this story continues to develop. 

Loblaw

CALIFORNIA – Scientists say that the chances of El Niño conditions developing by this fall are increasing.  They are now at 82%, up from 78% last month and 36% since last November, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

El Niño is the phenomenon when ocean waters warm and bring California wet winters.  After a third year of drought, this could be good news for California.  Unfortunately, it's not a guarantee. NOAA scientists are now saying that it looks like a moderate El Niño is developing instead of a strong one, according to Mercury News.

"The question now is what flavor of El Niño we're going to get," said Bill Patzert, a research scientist and oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "I've got my money on this being El Wimpo."

Historically, strong El Niños have almost always brought heavy rains to California where moderate and weak ones only deliver wetter than average winters about half of the time.

California is in its worst drought since the one starting in 1987 and desperately needs the rain.  There is extreme wildfire risk, fallowed farmland and water restrictions expected until November.  The National Weather Service has also forecasted a hotter than normal summer for California.

Since 1950, there have 16 moderate to weak and 6 strong El Niño events, according to Mercury News.  "Historically, there is a better chance of having above-normal rainfall than if there were no El Niño," said Jan Null, with Golden Gate Weather Services in Saratoga, which compiled the data. "But there are no guarantees."

Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for continued coverage on California’s drought.

CHAMBERSBURG, PA - Lady Moon Farms announced a partnership with Whole Kids Foundation as a Growing Healthy Kids sponsor.  The goal of the foundation is improving the nutrition of America’s children through salad bars and school gardens.

Lady Moon's founder, Tom Beddard said, “I feel that as one of our country’s premiere growers of organic produce, it is my responsibility to give back to the children of America and play a role in their education around living a healthy lifestyle.  After all, they are our future.”

 Lady Moon will make a $40,000 annual contribution. This donation will come from an in-store promotion during the Whole Kids Foundation’s Growing Healthy Kids campaign in early September at Whole Foods Market stores in the Mid-Atlantic Region, according to a press release.  For every pint of Lady Moon Farms grape tomatoes sold, $0.15 will be donated to the Foundation up to the $40,000.

It is planning on expanding the program to additional in 2015 when grape tomato season is at its peak.

Lady Moon Farms

DUBLIN, VA – Red Sun Farms gave a preview of its packaging direction for its organically grown produce at United Fresh.

“We are working closely with our packaging partners to find the right look for our organic line,” said Jim DiMenna, President and CEO.  “We are excited to be taking the first steps to be able to work with a recycled wood fiber board with a re-sealable, lidding film.”

Red Sun Farms are currently working on its packaging with CKF Inc., a manufacturing company that works with recycable moulded pulp and foam products.  It also plans to work on the wood fiber look for some of its conventionally grown produce in the future, according to a press release.

“We felt the decision to proceed with the combination of fiber trays and lidding film would be well aligned with today’s consumer.  The biodegradable fiber base greatly reduces our plastic consumption and clearly differentiates our organically grown tomatoes from our conventional lineup of hydroponic produce,” said DiMenna.  “We expect to roll out the new pack offering in time for our fall crop.”

Red Sun Farms is also on schedule with its Virginia greenhouse and held a successful job fair to add more candidates to its growing team.

Red Sun Farms

CKF Inc.