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Attendees of the New York Produce Show and Conference will find plenty of restaurants open for business in December, but the recovery from the pandemic continues to be rocky for many operators.

Through early November, the U.S. Department of Agriculture was taking comments on a proposed rule that would terminate the marketing order for Washington state potatoes.

Fresh potatoes have struggled at foodservice outlets during the pandemic, but frozen potatoes have gained market share during the past year, according to a new report from Potatoes USA.

“Food inflation is a hot topic,” Michael Swanson says noting that overall prices in the category are running at 6% higher than a year ago, whereas typically year-to-year food inflation is 1%.

California Governor Gavin Newsom in October signed a package of legislation designed to raise consumer awareness and industry accountability around packaging and recycling issues.

Among the many uncertainties of 2021, fruit and vegetable professionals were faced with extreme weather that wreaked havoc on the supply chain.

The year 2021 brought no “back to normal” for the restaurant industry. Instead, at the end of the year, the foodservice sector seems in danger of repeating the darkest days during the pandemic.

The five-year growth trend of indoor farming, especially controlled environment agriculture, accelerated in 2021, when supply chain delays and rising costs made shipping produce from across the country more difficult.

The year 2021 was a rough one, to say the least. But what was at the forefront of everyone’s mind? The health and safety of our industry’s most valuable asset: employees.

For many, 2021 wasn’t all that much better than 2020, as shortages of pallets, packaging, containers for export shipments and trucks created problems for the produce industry.