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 A new study by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention states leafy vegetables caused more illnesses than any other commodity from 1998-2008.

Attribution of Foodborne Illnesses, Hospitalizations, and Deaths to Food Commodities by using Outbreak Data, United States, 1998–2008, is the new report which split up foods into 17 categories and matched them up with outbreak-associated illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths.

Leafy vegetables got some bad news.  The CDC studied 17 commodities which showed leafy veggies caused more illnesses than any other commodity. Following leafy vegetables, the commodities linked to the most illnesses were dairy (1.3 million or 14 percent), fruits-nuts (1.2 million or 12 percent) and poultry (900,000 or 10 percent).

Illnesses associated with leafy vegetables were the second-most frequent cause of hospitalizations (14 percent) and the fifth-most frequent cause of death (6 percent).

Past studies have showed produce was linked to half of  virus’ that caused a gastroenteritis, the second-most frequent food source for E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks.

But the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group, said CDC’s findings should be no surprise that leafy greens are a top contributor to illness.

“The fact that three of the produce categories — leafy greens, fruits and nuts, vine-stalk vegetables — show up as contributors to illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths underscores the need for rapid implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act’s new regulations to improve the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables, announced on January 4,” said Caroline Smith DeWall, CSPI food-safety director.

The study comes as FDA announced holding the first public meeting on the FSMA proposed regulations in Washington, DC, from Feb. 28-March 1.

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The following is a post harvest posting  from the University of California Davis relating to hauling both cut flowers and fresh produce. 

 This is followed by a bit of information on the Fresh Produce Mixer & Loading Guide.  Very important information.  Please read the following.

Cut flowers should be considered an ethylene sensitive commodity and grouped with the top group of ethylene sensitive fruits and vegetables.  There is one exception to this and that is flowers that have been treated to make them insensitive to ethylene.  They can be treated like the middle rows of produce that are not sensitive to ethylene.  If you are not sure, then be safe and assume the flowers are ethylene sensitive.

Most flowers should be held at 0 – 2°C and grouped in the first temperature column.  Tropical origin flowers may be injured by these low temperatures and should be grouped with items held at warmer temperatures.

The refrigerated trailer book<https://marketplace.ucdavis.edu/C21642_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=104&SINGLESTORE=true> has a section on pages 3 – 5 that describes how to set up a mixed load of fruits and vegetables.

Mixer/Loading Guide

As producer of HaulProduce.com, one of the most useful tools ever created to help perishable haulers avoid claims is Fresh Produce Mixer & Loading Guide.  It was copyrighted in 1988.  It’s creator, Rich Macleod of TransFresh Corp., Salinas, CA  has always held produce truckers in high esteem and has shown concern for decades over the unfair treatment they too often experience at loading and unloading docks.

Few people in produce trucking have contributed anything as significant as his guide that shows groupings of fruits and vegetables that are compatible  for hauling perishables on transists between two and 10 days.

You can easily check out the Fresh Produce Mixer & Loading Guide online by simply clicking on the Transfresh ad found on this website.

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California shipped 49 percent of the leading vegetable and melon crops in 2012.  Florida, Arizona, Georgia and Washington were the next leading states in produce shipments.

Shipments of the 24 leading U.S. vegetable and melon crops increased one percent last year with about 438 million cwt. were transported off of 1.68 million acres, also up one percent from 2011, according to the USDA.

The highest volume crops in 2012 were onions, head lettuce and watermelons, when combined, made up 36 percent of the total shipments.

Onion volume declined from 74.1 million cwt. in 2011 to 72.3 million cwt. in 2012, head lettuce  was 45.6 million cwt., down from 49.7 million cwt., and watermelon rose from 37.2 million to 39 million cwt.

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Of the approximate  76 million bushels of USA fresh apples remaining to be shipped from storages, over 72 million bushels are in Washington state,  11 percent more than last year at the same time.

The  total as of February 1st was also 13 percent higher than the five-year average.

Volumes of the five biggest apple varieties were up from last year.  Those varieties are red delicious, fujis, galas; golden delicious and granny smiths.

By region, 73 million bushels had yet to be shipped from the Northwest as of Feb. 1.   About 72.3 million bushesls of those are in Washington.

About 2.4 million bushels in the Northeast, 240,000 bushels in the Southeast and 70,000 bushels in the Midwest/Southwest were still in storage.

Apple shipments from Michigan this season have been virtually non existent due to a freeze last spring.  Cold weather also adversely affected apple shipments in New York state.

The vast majority of the Washington’s apples are being shipped from storages in the Yakima Wenatchee valleys.  There are about 3200 truckload equivalents of apples being shipped weekly.  There’s also a significant amount of pears coming from the same area.

There’s also potatoes and onions being loaded out of Washington’s Columbia Basin and the adjoining Umatilla Basin in Oregon.

Washington apples – grossing around $3800 to Chicago and $6000 to New York City.

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Southern California strawberry volume for the first three weeks in January was around 1.2 million trays, which is pretty normal.   However, this is is only a small percentage of what the state will ship from spring through fall.

The state’s strawberry production has been building each year,  and in 2012  record shipments exceeded 190 million trays.

A primary growth in strawberry volume and shipments is now occurring from Ventura and Santa Mara.  The first significant volume this year is expect to take place in the days leading up to Easter (March 31st), with April expected to have big volume.

Potatoes

With a lot of spuds to be shipped this year, a survey shows  bagged red potatoes in the USA  was up 14 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011.

In the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota where 94 percent of the potatoes grown for the fresh market are reds, the valley is the largest shipper of red potatoes in the country.

At the same time, bagged russet shipments declined in the fourth quarter seven percent.  Russet loadings still far exceed red potato shipments, however.

Greenhouse Veggies

LEAMINGTON, Ontario — Greenhouse shippers in teh Leamington, Ontario area  continue to increase their acreage, particularaly along the northern shore of Lake Erie.

Peppers acerage  is up at several greenhouses for 2013, with 33 percent  of the province’s greenhouse acres planted in peppers, up from 29 percent a year ago.  There also should be more  mini and specialty peppers from the area, but green, red, yellow and orange bell peppers will continue to provide the most volume.  Cumcumbers amount to around 31 percent of greenhouse acres in Ontario in 2013, compared to 29 percent last year.

Southern California produce – grossing about $2800 to Dallas.

Red River Valley potatoes – about $1750 to Chicago.

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Small fleet owner Dean Blalock is in his 20th year of trucking and it is more than luck he continues to make a living in a very competitive profession.

A resident of Jasper, GA, he cites several reasons for his success.

*Don’t haul cheap freight.

*You’ve got to keep working and not sit at home.

*He has his own maintenance shop run by his son, with his daughter handling the books.  The shop handles everything from tire changes to most other maintenance.

*You have to be dependable in providing service,  including being on time for pick ups and deliveries.

While Dean has done his share of long haul, coast-to-coast trucking he now focuses on having his two trucks run primarily between Georgia and Florida.

On Sunday he will pick up his pre-loaded trailer  53-foot , 2007 Great Dane trailer at a plant in Cornellias, GA filled with frozen chicken.  He’ll deliver the load in Plant City, FL.  The return trip to Georgia is with produce.

On this particular day in January he had picked up a load of strawberries in Plant City at 10 p.m. and delivered the fruit to Collins Brothers Produce on the Atlanta State Farmers Market the next morning at 7 a.m.  He makes three round trips a week, averaging about 3,000 to 3,500 miles per week.

Following the third round trip he typically drops his trailer at the Georgia chicken facility on Friday and picks it up fully loaded on Sunday to start the whole process over again.

“I’d rather deal with the same people all of the time,” Dean relates.  “I stick with those companies that pay you.  When I arrived at Collins Brothers this morning I was paid soon as I unloaded.”

The Georgian used to haul coast-to-coast, which he described as “okay,” but says the rates were just not what they should be.  He makes more on per mile basis with his Georgia-Florida runs.

“Some guys run the East Coast to California for $1800.  I nearly make that much doing what I’m doing,” Dean says.

It was about three months earlier that he had make a round trip to the West Coast, but only because the westbound rate was $4500 with the return haul being $5600.

Dean drives at 1996 Peterbilt, powered by a 3406E Cat diesel linked to a 10 speed transmission on a 275-inch wheelbase.  The truck has a 63-inch sleeper.  He bought the truck in 2003 with 250,000 miles on it.  Today, the truck has over 1.1 million miles.  His other truck is a 2001 Pete.

Dean is a third generation trucker and also has two brothers in the profession.

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The Bully Dog Race Team is excited to announce that they have recently acquired a new race trailer that will be used to transport the Bully Dog race truck and Bully Dog sponsored trucks to races this season. This 48-foot beast is a fully enclosed race trailer that will have the capacity to haul the race trucks of superstar Bully Dog racer Jarid “The Iron Man” Vollmer and Bully Dog sponsored Nick Adamson, both of whom compete in the NHRDA series, and will also serve as a fully outfitted mobile shop on site at the races.

The trailer is now in the Bully Dog shop getting prepped, wrapped and ready for the big season. Keep your eye out for further photos and updates from the Bully Dog Race Team. To find out more about our upcoming appearances and events, check out our Facebook page

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