Produce Pro Software, a fully integrated, customizable software solutions, training and strategic business consulting firm based in Woodridge, IL, is releasing its brand-new Quality Control App, which allows users to perform product inspections, capture product images, and generate inspection reports, all without extra steps or messy paperwork.

“No more taking pictures on their phones or digital cameras and uploading to emails. The app does it all for them,” said Courtney Heim, Produce Pro marketing representative.

Eastern Fresh Growers Inc., in Cedarville, NJ, is making major strides in its production and handling of locally grown asparagus.

Tom Sheppard, company president, told The Produce News the company has increased its asparagus production to 350 acres, as compared to about 100 acres a few years ago.

“Asparagus plants have a lifespan of 16 or 17 years,” explained Sheppard. “We’re still producing original acreage, but we’re also planting new varieties with different characteristics.”

It’s “game on!” for stone fruit in the Pacific Northwest, much to the delight of consumers, according to Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers.

Thanks to a mild winter and spring, fruit has come on a week to 10 days earlier than normal this year, and Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers, with both conventional and organic tree-ripened fruit in good supplies, will ship its first loads of organic apricots June 1.

The certified apricots will ship through July 15, and conventional cots will ship June 10 through July 20, said OSRG Marketing Director Scott Marboe.

With some warmer weather in the forecast as California steamed toward early June, vegetable supplies might start to pick up, which could mean more predictability in the marketplace.

Though that could be the case, some are not so quick to concede that, as predictability has been the enemy for the past few months.

Mark McBride, who sits on the sales desk for Coastline in Salinas, CA, and is a longtime veteran in the Western vegetable industry, told The Produce News May 27 that he is not ready to assume that normal weather and production patterns will prevail.

WASHINGTON — The Food & Drug Administration has released the 483 inspection report on the Bidart Bros. apple packing plant, where inspectors found Listeria monocytogenes on food contact surfaces, linking the facility to a Listeria outbreak tied to its caramel apples

Health officials believe the company’s apples caused at least 35 people to become infected with the pathogen that resulted in 34 hospitalizations and seven deaths.

Naturipe Farms partner Munger Farms has announced the signing of a joint venture agreement with Golden Eagle Farm Group, owned by the Aquilini family in Vancouver, BC. The Aquilini family has several diverse farming operations and is a significant grower of blueberries in British Columbia and Washington state.

“This addition will complement our current production from Naturipe Farms partner MBG Marketing’s, premier grower base in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon,” Brian Bocock, vice president of product management for Naturipe Farms, said in a press release.