WASHINGTON -- A new survey found that some state health investigators miss asking questions about fruit and vegetable consumption during initial interviews of people suffering from foodborne illnesses. State and local health departments play a key role in investigating foodborne illness outbreaks by contacting people with laboratory-confirmed illnesses, recording possible exposures to pathogens, conducting inspections of food establishments and performing DNA analyses.

A public hearing has been set for Dec. 2 in San Jose, CA, to determine whether a referendum should be held earlier than required by law on the fate of the California Cut Flower Commission. State law establishes the commission as an adjunct to the California Department of Food & Agriculture, which recently announced the hearing date, and requires a referendum among the state's growers every five years. The next one is due in 2010. However, a group of growers is pushing to have the referendum held earlier.

Giumarra of Nogales in Nogales, AZ, has started its winter season and is now shipping cantaloupes, honeydew melons and both seeded and seedless watermelons from Mexico. The division is also shipping English cucumbers, greenhouse cucumbers and green bell peppers.

Starting Nov. 10, the division will begin shipping the "Nature's Partner" Summer Sweet melon variety, a Tuscan-style cantaloupe. Colored bell peppers will follow on Nov. 15.

At its late-October meeting, the Produce for Better Health Foundation's executive committee decided to end its direct involvement in pursuing the development of national promotion board for the fruit and vegetable industry.

Members of the Southern California produce industry let their feet and legs do the talking when they turned out en masse Sunday, Oct. 25, to participate in the City of Hope's annual Walk For Hope, which raises money to fight and cure breast cancer.

Dubbed "Team Produce," more than 120 participants joined in the walk and/or participated in the event as volunteers. More than $60,000 worth of produce was donated to the event, all of which was passed out to many of the 9,000 people who walked in the beautiful Southern California sunshine.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service announced Oct. 22 that it had amended its citrus canker regulations to allow fruit from quarantined areas to be shipped to all U.S. states and territories based on results of new scientific research.

The ruling was praised in Florida, the only state that was under quarantine for citrus canker, but questioned by other citrus-producing states and territories.