NEWS ROUNDUP 1995-02-20 (1)

AMI Sets Sausage Seminar

American Meat Institute Foundation will hold an educational session on dry and semidry sausage processes on Feb. 23 and 24 at the Westin O'Hare Hotel in Chicago.

In December several people became ill after eating salami contaminated with the E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria. As a result, earlier this month the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a new set of procedures to ensure proper processes are used in the making of dry and semidry sausages, which include salami.

Conference speakers will include Jesse Majkowski, program manager of emergency response programs at the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service division, and John Tilden, a researcher with the Center For Disease Control, Atlanta, who will present an update on the E. coli victims.

For more information about the seminar, contact Janet Collins, vice president of scientific and technical affairs for AMI, at (703) 841-2400.

Meat Conference Set for April

WASHINGTON -- The Annual Meat Marketing Conference is slated for April 2 to 4 at the Stouffer Waverly Hotel in Atlanta.

The three-day event will include seminars, store tours and a kickoff reception.

The evening cocktail party, themed, "Celebrating a World of Different Tastes," will emphasize new and ethnic foods. New products will be sampled and suppliers will demonstrate innovations in case displays and cross-merchandising ideas.

Some session topics will include: case-ready meat success stories, creating effective partnerships between retailers and suppliers, and how to turn the meat department into a successful "meal" department.

A segment of the program will also be devoted to discussion of new technologies and computer-based programs for the meat department. Additionally, results of a consumer research study by the National Live Stock and Meat Board, Chicago, on meat and poultry consumption will be released. And a panel of retailers will discuss programs that have been implemented in their meat departments in response to changing consumer trends.

Prior to the conference, an international meat merchandising workshop will be held. It will focus on changes in the meat distribution system, and will track the development of meat departments in the United States and Latin America.

The conference is sponsored by the Food Marketing Institute, Washington, and the American Meat Institute, Arlington, Va. For the first time this year, the National-American Wholesale Grocers' Association, Falls Church, Va., and the National Grocers Association, Reston, Va., are also supporting the conference.

For more information contact Sherrie Rosenblatt at (202) 429-4552 or Peter Marigliano at (703) 841-2400.

Florida Offers Juice Cookbook

LAKELAND, Fla. -- The Florida Department of Citrus wants orange juice to be thought of as more than a refreshing beverage.

So, it is distributing a new cookbook that includes recipes that use orange juice as well as oranges and grapefruit. It will be made available to supermarkets nationwide. The suggested retail price is $2.99 for a soft cover edition.

The recipes use citrus products in place of higher fat ingredients.

"By replacing unhealthy ingredients with Florida orange and grapefruit juice, people can balance their desire for 'comfort foods' and need for a healthy diet," said Ivy Leventhal, spokesman for the Department of Citrus.