Pure Flavor has six new proprietary snack tomato varieties for its retailers which it is confident customers are going to simply love. These six new offerings are:
3: Bumbles®, Juno Bites® , Oriana®
Azuca® Cherry Tomato
Bumbles® Yellow Grape Tomatoes
Juno Bites® Snacking Tomatoes
Oriana® Orange Grape Tomato
Sangria® Mix
Pure Flavor Key Account Manager Ken Paglione tells ANUK that all these new varieties will be available in Pure Flavor's new custom oval clamshell packages utilized for their stackability and ability to be displayed on their side without damaging or unbalancing the product.
The snack tomato varieties will come with accompanying recipe cards as well as Pure Flavor Shipper displays for retailing partners to make use of it their stores.
For more information on these great new snack tomato varieties, check out our Pure Flavor Shop Talk at the top of this page.
IOWA CITY, IA - Lucky's Market is expanding again, announcing plans to open five new locations over the coming year. Bloomington, ID; Ann Arbor, MI; Rock Hill, MO; Jackson Hole, WY; and Iowa City, IA will be the latest homes to this Boulder, CO-based organic and natural foods grocery chain.
Ben Friedland, Creative Manager for Lucky's Market, shared with the Iowa City Press-Citizen that Lucky's goal was to bring its mantra of “good food for all” to a wider audience of American consumers.
"We want to be able to bring it more to the masses, and sometimes there is this perception out there that natural and organic food cannot be affordable, so we are out there to kind of change that perception to let people know it can be affordable," he said. "We're not just about being in a community, but being a part of a community and local is one way we can do that.”
The announcement is already being greeted with excitement from these local communities.
"I am excited because I love their concept. I have visited many of their stores, They are great people to work with. They have great products, and it's just a perfect fit for Iowa City," said Iowa City Marketplace Vice President John Arlotti.
Friedland also shared that 90% of the products sold at the new Iowa City location will be all natural and organic, keeping with Lucky's Market's vision of being a leading local provider of healthy, natural foods, according to Iowa City Press-Citizen.
AndNowUKnow is in the fortunate place to be able to speak at a personal level about Lucky's Market and the quality of the vision it brings to the retail game. Lucky's will be one of our featured stories in the latest edition of our print publication “The Snack” and ANUK reporters have spoken at length with members of its executive team on the vision and goals of this expanding company. When Ben talks about wanting to be “part of a community,” we here at ANUK know those are words spoken from the heart.
NEW YORK, NY - Urban Produce is helping to take growing technology to the next level with its first, High Density Vertical Growing (HDVG) System. This patented system will go online August 1st and will provide a growing atmosphere for both live and cut produce, including 28 varieties of microgreens as well as a variety of different basil, bok choy, wheatgrass, strawberries, mint and herbs from major retailers, food services and culinary chiefs.
“We believe in bringing the best nutrient dense, fresh produce we can, directly into urban cities. Our goal is to expand our footprint and build 50 new facilities in the next 3 to 4 years,” Danielle Horton, Director of Marketing, tells AndNowUKnow. “Providing access to locally grown, fresh produce in the heart of a city can help increase consumption and availability in a very unique setting.”
The Urban Produce High Density Vertical Growing System has been developed as a sustainable alternative to traditional agriculture, utilizing advanced hydroponic technologies in a controlled environment. The patented technology takes the best of hydroponics and increases the yield by stacking produce vertically, in a closed, completely automated environment. 
“Our patented growing technology allows us to grow the equivalent of 16 acres of produce on just a 1/8 acre footprint, all while reducing water usage by 90% as compared to traditional row farming. Imagine the tremendous short-term benefit to locally grown, organic produce using less water while reducing our carbon footprint and bringing jobs to local communities. Now, imagine that 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year...the long-term benefits are absolutely incredible. We are very excited with the opportunities that lay ahead of Urban Produce as we look to expand into urban cities all over the U.S., and Canada,” said Ed Horton 
in a press release.
“The HDVG system is completely automated and ensures that the plant gets exactly the right amount of water and nutrients required with no runoff or excess,” Danielle tells me.
Urban Produce is a 21st century growing system producing locally grown, organic, sustainable produce while employing local communities and reducing their carbon footprint.
Look for one of these impressive structures in the near future as Urban Produce takes their initiative to Urban areas near you.
GATTON, KY - No shopper likes a bruised avocado, but according to Professor Daryl Joyce from the University of Queensland in Gatton, the chief cause of this unslightly occurance are consumers themselves. It's common practice for many consumers to squeeze an avocado before purchasing it as a way to test how ripe it is. It is this very practice that is doing so much damage to countless fruits at the retail aisle.
Bruising is a big problem for retailers because not only does bruising lead to higher rates of disease, but avocado eaters are unique in that shopping data quoted on ABC reveals that customers who purchase an avocado but have a bad experience will generally refuse to purchase additional avocados for up to two weeks. It's easy to see how a few bad experiences could really eat into a retailer's profits during peak avocado season.
"We were able to rule out everything up to the point of the ripening process," Joyce explained. "We placed an instrumented sphere (a small device the size of a cricket ball with sensors inside) into the middle of a fruit tray to record the bumps and thumps all the way through."
With this and a $25,000 glove laced with pressure sensors that identify exactly how customers distributed pressure on the avocado when examining it, the researchers found that it is the customer and not the distributor that does the most damage to the avocado before it is sold.
“We don't like to use the word 'blame'," Professor Joyce laughed. "People tend to squeeze a couple of fruit in deciding which one they want. Then they put the other ones back.”
With each squeeze, Joyce explains that a little bit more damage is done to the product. This adds up over time.
"That was interesting, and exciting, and it became quite clear we need to teach people how to handle softening avocado fruit,” he said.
How do you fix this problem? Joyce has a couple ideas in mind.
He thinks that the best solution so far would be to set up “decision-aid tools” in retail aisles which customers could use without needing to squeeze, and damage, the fruit.
“...we'll try and make some kind of tool that'll allow people to get a feel for the fruit when shopping, but not to squeeze the fruit anymore," he shared. “A very simple device connected to lights that that will tell you whether it's ready to eat."
The design is already there. Joyce says that a simplified, and much cheaper, version of the glove his team used for the experiment could do the job nicely.
One way or another, retailers will need to come up with a solution to this problem if they want to maintain a plethora of avocados on their shelves that are “worth the squeeze,” as the saying goes.
NANJING, CHINA - They say that sex sells, but one fruit vendor in China might have taken that phrase a bit too far. Just one warning – don’t let your boss catch you looking at these peaches at work! They look a bit cheeky (no pun intended), if you ask me…
A fruit vendor in Nanjing, China is selling these peaches to celebrate the arrival of the Qixi Festival tomorrow, or essentially the Chinese version of Valentine’s Day. Be warned though, these peaches don’t come cheap! One box of nine will set you back 498 yuan, or $80 U.S., according to Kotaku. I know the term “produce lover” gets tossed around a lot, but this is just too literal.
The peaches come from Yangshan in Wuxi, an area known for its lingerie and garment industry, and the vendor slips on each garment by hand. Imagine reading that job description. Where do people sign up?!
The vendor’s profit margins must be skyrocketing by now because apparently other vendors in China have started taking a similar approach to selling peaches. According to Kotaku, the fruit vendor reportedly filed for a “panty peach” patent a month ago and is now filing for infringement with the intellectual property bureau. You might want to be careful about how you sexualize your produce…
Who’s the target audience for these sexy peaches? Secondly… how can I get my own box? And finally, what's next - two watermelons in a bra?
Washington D.C. - IFCO's Youth Produce Ambassador Kid Chef Eliana was at United Fresh this year to share with conference attendees both her culinary creations as well as her message about the importance of families cooking together.
“I'm trying to encourage kids to get in the kitchen and cook and especially kids and families to cook together and eat healthier and that's what I'm doing with IFCO and then when you're going grocery shopping and you see all these IFCO RPC's it just showcases all these fresh fruits and veggies...” Eliana told ANUK.
Her's is a message that America's growers will want to support. Kids who can cook are much more likely after all to grow into the type of adults that frequent farmer's markets and the fresh produce sections of grocery stores rather than the menu's of McDonalds or Taco Bell for inspiration for their evening meals rather.
Good cooks make good shoppers and as you can see in ANUK's above Shop Talk exclusive with Eliana, that's exactly the type of consumer she's helping to create.
DUBLIN, VA – Red Sun Farms is making a big move in America by planting nearly 30,000 hydroponic tomato plants in a new high-tech greenhouse in Dublin, Virginia.
WDBJ7 reports that the greenhouse has nearly one million square feet of glass covering almost 20 acres of tomatoes.
John Secker, Red Sun Farm’s Master Grower, is working with a small crew to do the planting by hand. “Fifteen thousand today and fifteen thousand tomorrow,” he said to WDBJ7.
“It’s very technical. All the systems here are automated other than the plant care, that has to be done with people,” Secker added. “But all my irrigation, heating, ventilation we’ll have energy screens in the winter, tried to reduce our energy costs. That’s all automated.”
According to Red Sun, the tomato plants will supply customers in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.
“I think what makes this so different is that you don’t typically see a high-tech greenhouse in the Mid-Atlantic states. It can be very hot, high humidity area. But the New River Valley is really unique in its growing climate,” Jay Abbot, Director of Operations for Red Sun Farms, told WDBJ7.
Red Sun signed an agreement with several local governments, town, cities and counties that it will hire up to 205 full-time workers. The company currently has less than 10 Latin American workers on the property to show the new local employees how to start the process.
In response to a question about genetically modified foods, Abbott added, “Beyond being certified organic, (Red Sun Farms) will also be certified for the entire greenhouse as a non-GMO greenhouse. We as a company do not use GMO seed.”
The first harvest should be ready around October of this year.
LOS ALAMITOS, CA – Frieda’s Specialty Produce has once again passed its annual Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) benchmark audit and California Organic Farmers (CCOF) organic audit.
“Food safety is of highest importance here at Frieda’s,” says Jackie Caplan Wiggins, Frieda’s Vice President and COO. “Not only do we apply the strictest of requirements to our own facility, our supplier-partners all must adhere to the same high standards.”
Frieda’s received a near perfect score of 99.35% on its PrimusGFS Packinghouse Audit, the highest global standard and more comprehensive and detailed audit than the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) food safety audit, according to a press release. This score was higher than its 2013 score of 99.26%.
Frieda’s also received an organic audit performed by CCOF in June of this year. The company remains 100% compliant with the National Organic Program set up by the USDA.
The CCOF certifies more than 2,500 organic operations in 38 states and three foreign countries, and the GFSI is an initiative for continuous improvement of food safety management systems, according to a press release.
Frieda’s clients can request updated certificates and final audit results by contacting the company’s Compliance Department.
Congratulations on the high scores!
SAN DIEGO, CA - AmazonFresh is now expanding into the 3rd largest consumer market in California: San Diego. With this latest move Amazon has locked up a major presence in four key markets along the West Coast. Now just like their counterparts in San Francisco, Seattle, and LA, San Diego shoppers will have access to over 500,000 products ranging from onions, to cherry tomatoes, to green beans, to apples.
Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak reminded Geek Wire that this is only the beginning. AmazonFresh was designed as a pilot program, a way to test out the emerging market of grocery delivery on demand which many insiders speculate will one day be a major player in the retail market.
Already though Szkutak sees improvements. “Certainly the economics have improved through invention on behalf of the team there, as well as operating efficiencies,” he noted.
AmazonFresh isn't the only up-and-comer in this new market. ANUK previously covered Whole Foods' partnership with the grocery delivery start-up Instacart. And that is just the beginning.
The truth of the matter is that more and more people in today's economy are prioritizing eating healthier and fresh produce is a big part of this drive. Whoever engineers the quickest, most convenient way to deliver this produce to tomorrow's generation of consumers stands to take in big profits. Based on its actions up to this point, it certainly seems clear that Amazon is aiming to be that company.
Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for any further developments on this emerging business model.
OVIEDO, FL – Duda Farm Fresh Foods took home first place at this year's PMA Chef Demo. Chef Todd Fisher wow'ed judges with his Lemongrass Steamed Chicken Bahn Mi Bun with Dandy® Radish and Celery “Quickles,” highlighting Duda's value-added fresh celery and radish mini-stick products.
“Celery is a staple in professional kitchens around the world, adding a crunch when raw and a distinct yet mellow flavor when cooked,” Fisher said. “In this recipe, the celery and radish made this bahn mi bun delicious and vibrant and aides in the addition of fresh produce to your plate.”
According to a press release Chef Todd has more than 20 years of experience in the culinary industry and has been working with Duda for over a decade. With that kind of relationship between them, Duda executives knew Todd was the right man to represent their business and products at PMA.
“Chef Todd brought the fun and flavor to PMA Foodservice this year,” said Nichole Towell, Director of Marketing at Duda Farm Fresh Foods. “Our winning recipe was a true expression of the conference theme this year, “‘Innovate the plate.’”
If you'd like to try out Chef Todd's recipe for yourself you can check it out on Duda's website here.
Duda markets its fresh-cut celery products under its Dandy® brand. According to a press release, Dandy brand celery is available at retail and food service establishments across North America on a year round basis.
Congratulations on the award Duda!