Lettuce
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.
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.
Dragon fruit demand has skyrocketed on Produce Market Guide last week.
The likelihood of a whole lettuce purchase fell six percentage points from Fresh Trends 2017.
Hydroponic herb and leafy greens grower Great Lakes Growers is delivering directly to customers in Ohio, with plans to expand the program later this year.
Growers in the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement will soon be sanitizing “open-source” water used on their crops, which has been the focus of at least two recent E. coli outbreaks traced to leafy greens.
Securing adequate labor has been a challenge throughout the California produce industry in recent years, and the labor market tends to get even tighter during the summer.
SALINAS, Calif. – Mark Adamek, director of romaine, artisan and mixed leaf production for Tanimura & Antle, said he has high hopes for the rest of the season despite challenges earlier in the year.
Shipping point prices of romaine lettuce in December slid very low, from nearly $24 per carton early in the month to just $8 per carton late in the month.
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.
Walmart plans to expand BrightFarms packaged salad offerings to 50 stores in the Columbus, Ohio, area, after a successful launch in the state.
Wendy’s Berry Burst Chicken Salad is back on menus, with a half-cup of fresh strawberries and blueberries in the full-size option.
The Star Group is taking its greenhouse living lettuce line one step farther, cutting, washing and offering the lettuce in five new blends under the Inspired Leaves brand.
The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, Sacramento, has hired Greg Komar as technical director.
Taylor Farms has four new chopped salads kits — Roasted Garlic, Tangerine Crunch, Steakhouse Wedge and Salsa Ranch.
California spring vegetables are seeing increasing competition from Mexican imports.
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.
Taylor Farms, Salinas, Calif., has purchased Earthbound Farm from France-based Danone SA.
Dole Food Co. is offering a new line of Bountiful Kits, ready-to-eat salad kits that feature the plant-based protein trend.
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.
Boggiatto Produce, Salinas, Calif., has changed its name to Hitchcock Farms in a rebranding.
Measuring bulk lettuce purchases (not packaged), Fresh Trends 2023 found that 41% of all consumers said they purchased bulk lettuce in the past year.
The Michigan-based controlled environment agriculture lettuce grower has recalled all products and date codes sold under its Revolution Farms Brand in an expansion of an earlier recall on April 5, 2023.
The Kingsville, Ontario-based company said the new offering will make its debut at the Southeast Produce Council’s Southern Exposure event, set for March 7-9 in Tampa, Fla.
The company said more than 200 markets in the mid-Atlantic will carry its Spring Leaf Mix, Green Lettuce Blend, Green Butter Lettuce, Red Lettuce Blend and Romaine Lettuce.
The new ownership is a partnership between the Nunes and Costa families, in which the Costa family will maintain the production and operations and the Nunes family will oversee the sales and marketing.
The grocery delivery and pickup service recently unveiled a list of 75 of its top-growing brands.
A project at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign compared risk management mitigation strategies to prevent exposure to contaminants.
The company said it will supply its living butter lettuce to 13 of the retailer’s distribution centers.
Production will begin this fall at KingsOne Farms, established by Cole Mucci, with the greenhouse estimated to produce about 11 million heads of lettuce annually.