PLEASANTON, CA -- Steve Burnham, the new vice president of produce for Safeway Inc., joked that he was happy to leave the meat department where E. coli and Salmonella scares often reared their ugly heads.

Speaking to more than 200 attendees at the Sept. 16 luncheon of the Fresh Produce & Floral Council, here, the longtime Safeway executive also quipped that he was glad his days of dealing with country-of-origin labeling in the seafood department were over.

GLOUCESTER CITY, NJ -- South African citrus export volumes to the United States have exceeded expectations for the season, according to Piet Smit, managing director of the Western Cape Citrus Producers' Forum.

GREENFIELD, MA -- The Organic Trade Association has appointed a new executive director: Christine Bushway, who became the third executive director in the association's 23-year history.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) criticized the Food & Drug Administration's response to this summer's Salmonella outbreak at a Sept. 17 hearing, here, and announced plans to introduce a bill to split up FDA's food and drug programs to elevate food safety in the government agency.

Rep. DeLauro plans to introduce a bill later this month that would consolidate food regulation within the Department of Health & Human Services as well as require new mandates for traceability, inspections and imported foods.

SALINAS, CA -- It's been more than three years since the nationally syndicated radio show "The Produce Pair" has been heard on the radio. For San Francisco Bay area listeners, that drought is about to end.

Produce industry veteran Dan (The Produce Man) Avakian and radio partner Mark (Guido the Gardener) Ferro are teaming up again to return to the airwaves in late October or early November. This time the duo will air on KTRB (860 AM), a 50,000-watt station based in San Francisco.

International Fruit Genetics, a major table grape and stone fruit breeding organization in Bakersfield, CA, said that its new table grape variety called Sweet Sunshine has surpassed expectations.

The first commercial crop of Sweet Sunshine has been harvested in Arvin, CA, by Grapery, a grape producer owned by Jack Pandol.

Sweet Sunshine is a mid-season, naturally large, elongated, white seedless grape that ripens with similar timing to Thompson seedless but is said to be larger, crunchier and more flavorful.