Needing to cut costs, chicken processing giant Pilgrim's Pride Corp., Pittsburg, Texas, said it will eliminate approximately 355 salaried and salaried non-exempt positions across the company.
Although it plans to keep its Longmont, Colo., turkey hot dog processing plant, Butterball LLC, Garner, N.C., sold its Longmont brand to Sigma Alimentos.
Consumers can expect by mid-2009 to see new Fruit2Day chilled fruit offerings from a 50/50 joint venture partnership between organic and natural foods specialist WhiteWave Foods Co. and Hero North America LLC.
J. P. Veggies Inc., Parsippany, N.J., a natural and vegetarian foods processor, announced that it has acquired the Franklin Farms, North Fankliln, Conn., brand of vegetarian products.
Tree Top Inc., Selah, Wash., announced that it has purchased Sabroso Co., a Medford, Ore.-based processor that makes fruit purees and other fruit-based ingredients.
North American dairy giant Saputo Inc., Montreal, said overall efficiency influenced its decision to simply close a Hinesburg, Vt., cheese plant damaged by a fire.
Smithfield Foods Inc., Smithfield, Va., said it completed its previously announced sale of Smithfield Beef, its beef processing and cattle feeding operation, to Brazilian meat giant JBS S.A.
Two California companies -- Chino's Western Meat Packing Inc. and Sherman Oaks' House of David Kosher Chicken -- each plan to build new processing plants.
The American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) asked the Child Nutrition Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to include frozen products in the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Programs and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).