Nonfoods

Grocers and the meat industry are taking substantive steps to maintain consumer trust in a post-BSE world.

NORTHFIELD, Ill. - Kraft Foods, Inc., based here, yesterday bought Littleton, Mass.-based Veryfine Products, Inc., a juice maker that has been owned by the same family since 1900, according to published reports. Terms of the purchase weren't disclosed.

WEST BRIDGEWATER, Mass. - When Albertsons announced last week it would acquire Shaw's Supermarkets in a stock purchase deal expected to take place in the next 30 to 45 days, both analysts and leaders of the labor union that represents about one-third of Shaw's work force were caught off guard, according to the Providence Journal in Rhode Island.

WASHINGTON - Acrylamide, a cancer-causing substance that has been found in fried potatoes, is also found in such foods as olives, prune juice, and teething biscuits, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said. Still, scientists stress that the public health significance of acrylamide remains unknown.

BALTIMORE -- Giant and Safeway supermarkets in the Baltimore-Washington area, as well as the union representing 29,000 of their employees, are facing a Tuesday deadline for a new contract -- and the possibility of a strike that could affect hundreds of local supermarkets and prompt thousands of workers to join picket lines, the Baltimore Sun reports.

WASHINGTON - The Food Marketing Institute today applauded Wednesday's vote by the U.S. House of Representatives to reauthorize the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program for the next four years.

ATLANTA - Eatzi's will open its second metro Atlanta gourmet grocery and restaurant next year in Park Place across from Perimeter Mall, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

ENCINO, Calif. - Unionized clerks at Gelson's Markets will vote this week on a new labor contract after rejecting it March 12, according to a report in The Orange County Register.