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NEWSWATCH

Giant Food Stores in Carlisle, Pa., has been honored with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's Leadership Award for Excellence, in recognition of the company's partnership with the PA Preferred program. Giant has participated in the PA Preferred program, developed to showcase produce grown in Pennsylvania, since its inception in 2004. The company now annually partners

GIANT HONORED FOR PA. PROMOTION

CARLISLE, Pa. — Giant Food Stores has been honored with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's “Leadership Award for Excellence,” in recognition of the company's partnership with the “PA Preferred” program. Giant has participated in the PA Preferred program, developed to showcase produce grown in Pennsylvania, since its inception in 2004. The company now annually partners with PA Preferred to host a trade fair where local growers and vendors meet with Giant buyers to introduce their products. Last fall, Giant began displaying PA Preferred products on designated racks in all of its Pennsylvania stores.

SPINACH, LETTUCE IRRADIATION OK'D

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that it will allow food producers to treat spinach and iceberg lettuce with levels of radiation sufficient to kill E. coli and salmonella bacteria. Previously, produce growers were only allowed to use levels of radiation sufficient to kill insects. The Grocery Manufacturers Association petitioned the agency for the permissions last year. Other groups have argued that irradiation may lower the nutritional value of some foods. And in related news, the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service has announced that it will hold a meeting Sept. 18 to discuss a petition, submitted by the American Meat Institute, requesting that FSIS recognize the use of low-dose electron-beam irradiation as a processing aid for beef carcasses.

PUBLIX EXTENDS WEST INDIAN PUSH

LAKELAND, Fla. — Publix Super Markets here has extended its Independence Day print and radio ad campaign in South Florida, in an effort to target shoppers from the Bahamas, Barbados, Haiti, Jamaica and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. “A large part of our consumer base in South Florida is made up of customers from the West Indies. We respect and appreciate that they are extremely proud of their home country's culture and history,” Kimberly Jaeger, Publix's manager of media and community relations, said in a release. The ads each use a produce-as-art motif, reproducing each island's flag with fruits and vegetables that are favorites on the island. The ads are also tagged with nuggets of island history, and the date of each one's independence.