Latest News From Lettuce

After the crisis of last November’s outbreak related to romaine lettuce, our associations moved quickly to bring together a diverse, progressive group of stakeholders to help tackle the myriad of complex issues.

Fresh Express, Orlando, Fla., has six new Gourmet Kits Salads Bowls launching in select markets.

FiveStar Gourmet Foods, Ontario, Calif., is introducing a Grilled Steak Salad at Costco stores.

BrightFarms, Irvington, N.Y., has hired Steve Platt as CEO.

Second-quarter vegetable sales totaled $7.68 billion, up 5.3% from the same period in 2018.

Steinbeck Country Produce, Salinas, Calif., is changing its marketing identity to Nature’s Reward to capitalize on consumer brand recognition, and has a new website design.

Church Brothers Farms, Salinas, Calif., is introducing Sweet Baby Broccoli, Tuscan Baby Romaine and Sandwich Ready Leaves at the Produce Marketing Association’s Foodservice Conference and Expo.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue recently toured berry and lettuce farms in Watsonville, Calif. 

JBT Corp., Chicago, has new equipment that uses 3D technology to remove cores from lettuce heads.

Enza Zaden welcomed more than 100 growers, shippers and seed dealers to its San Juan Bautista Research Station to highlight the company’s leafy green varieties.

Boggiatto Produce, Salinas, Calif., has changed its name to Hitchcock Farms in a rebranding.

Walmart plans to expand BrightFarms packaged salad offerings to 50 stores in the Columbus, Ohio, area, after a successful launch in the state.

Last week on Produce Market Guide searches for avocados and strawberry content dominated demand.

Under the weight of two E. coli outbreak investigations linked to romaine lettuce — one leading to a six-day hiatus of all romaine sales — overall lettuce per capita availability was off about 20% in 2018, according to a new report.

Dole Food Co. is offering a new line of Bountiful Kits, ready-to-eat salad kits that feature the plant-based protein trend.

Bonduelle Fresh Americas, which markets the Ready Pac brand, is initiating new water treatment standards for leafy greens.

The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement has new officers and board members.

It’s no longer just iceberg lettuce and blue cheese crumbles on the salad menu these days.

Lakeside Organic Gardens, Watsonville, Calif., has added baby iceberg to its list of organic produce.

Boskovich Farms in Oxnard, Calif., is going to begin growing a small amount of iceberg lettuce.

Celery is a rising star among organic produce as consumer appetites increase for the product segment.

Vegetable growers of red and green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, cauliflower and broccolini, among other crops, is feeling a ripple effect from last year’s multistate E. coli outbreaks and subsequent recalls.

A winter of rain, occasional hail and cold temperatures across California will likely throw wrenches into this year’s spring vegetable supplies, growers say.

Following up on its February removal of a ban on California romaine lettuce imports, Hong Kong on March 5 lifted its ban on imports and sales of Arizona romaine.

The Florida spring produce season will get underway in time, thanks to a largely uninterrupted spate of favorable growing conditions, suppliers say.

The big question for the Romaine Task Force is, what can the industry do to strengthen irrigation water-testing standards in the mean time?

The likelihood of a whole lettuce purchase fell six percentage points from Fresh Trends 2017.

Newark, N.J.-based AeroFarms has hired Roger Post as the company’s new chief operating officer.

The Food and Drug Administration on Jan. 15 plans to start inspections of high-risk food facilities, which include leafy green processing plants, using mostly unpaid furloughed employees.

One unintended consequence of the partial government shutdown that began Dec. 22 has been an apparent suspension in foodborne outbreak investigation updates.

All product recall issues — which, at their core, are traceability issues — center around 3 important things: identify, isolate, communicate.

Too many companies and people pretend food safety problems in fresh produce don’t exist.

As romaine lettuce returns to supermarket shelves, I wanted to see what was actually happening at the point of sale.

The Santa Barbara County, Calif., farm named by the Food and Drug Administration as a source of E. coli in an outbreak linked to romaine has recalled red and green leaf lettuce and cauliflower.

With a $90-million investment, Bowery Farming plans to build large-scale indoor farms in cities across the country.

One ripple effect of an E. coli outbreak linked to romaine is that customers tend to turn elsewhere for the lettuce variety, even when the Food and Drug Administration has deemed most production areas safe.

In the wake of the food safety travails of romaine lettuce in recent weeks — and industry navel-gazing about whether health authorities overreacted — I ask this question: What about the good news?

Pete’s Living Greens, Oxnard, Calif., is introducing Organic Red Butter Lettuce and Organic Spring Mix this month.

Gonzales, Calif.-based organic leafy greens grower Misionero is celebrating two years since the company was purchased by Harbinger.

United States health officials say it's okay to east some romaine lettuce again, just check the label.

Most Florida growers said they expected a typical crop this fall with good quality and sizing.

Fresh Express is rolling out two salad kits nationwide.

The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement has adopted the changes made by its Arizona counterpart in the wake of an E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce grown in Arizona — with one exception.

The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement has adopted the changes made by its Arizona counterpart in the wake of an E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce grown in Arizona — with one exception.

Great Lakes Growers, an 80,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse facility in Burton, Ohio, is doubling in size.

Bright Farms used its Fresh Summit booth to show off its locally grown leafy greens products and to share its plans for expansion.

Church Brothers Farms and its processing company, True Leaf Farms, is building a processing/packing facility just across the U.S. border in Mexico to increase year-round supplies.

Misionero Vegetables, Gonzales, Calif., will be displaying new salad kits, bowls and washed and trimmed lettuces at the Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit.

DelFrescoPure is investing in technology with a new mechanized stand-alone growing system for the company’s living herbs and microgreens in a year-round process.

DelFrescoPure is investing in technology with a new mechanized stand-alone growing system for the company’s living herbs and microgreens in a year-round process.