News

Chelan, WA, February 4, 2010 – Chelan Fresh Marketing has announced that Steve Terry has elected to retire after 30 years in the fruit business.

For the past 5 years, Steve has been the General Sales Manager of Chelan Fresh Marketing, where he was instrumental in managing the development of the company from its inception to its current position as a major respected player in the Northwest fruit business.

Chelan Fresh Marketing official fruit sponsor / fundraiser

As the official local fruit sponsor of the 2010 Championships, Chelan Fresh is proud to donate a portion of the proceeds from each specially marked apple bag to the U.S. Figure Skating Memorial Fund. Please see poster for more information.

The mission of the Memorial Fund is to provide qualified U.S. figure skaters in need of financial aid with monetary assistance to pursue their goals both inside and outside the competitive arena. The fund is committed to awarding skating and academic scholarships to those athletes who have demonstrated excellent competitive results and/or academic achievements and who have future potential in national and international competitions.

Chelan Fruit, the nation's largest and oldest cooperative apple shipper, has greatly expanded its shipping and receiving docks to improve quality control and efficiency as it keeps pace with increasing production and sales. The company's fruit is marketed by Chelan Fresh Marketing, which ships more than 12 million packs of Washington apples, pears and cherries annually.

The new docks, located at Chelan Fruit's facilities in Chelan, Wa., allow the company to ship twice the amount of fruit it previously could ship in a day. But the real advantage, said Assistant General Manager Jim Divis, is the company's improved ability to oversee and control fruit quality.

"The real payback is the reduction in repacking and rejected fruit and an increase in customer satisfaction," Divis said. "It means better quality for our customers day in and day out."

The $4 million project expanded Chelan Fruit's domestic sales shipping dock from four to nine bays accessing a 250,000-box inventory. All inventory is now available at one location using push-back racks to access boxes of fruit on three levels. Radio frequency identification is used to locate, access information about and track every pallet of fruit. The facility and technology allows the company to ship precisely the right fruit in terms of variety, quality and age to a specific customer.

Chelan Fruit also added a three-bay receiving dock on the back side of its new shipping facility to maintain its inventory with shipments from its other warehouses located in Chelan and Brewster and purchased fruit from other warehouses. Divis said the separate receiving dock allows inventory to be replenished without slowing down shipments to customers. The facility includes a new shipping office and truckers lounge.

The company's former four-bay shipping dock with its 150,000-box inventory has also been retained to focus on international export shipments. The combined capacity of racked radio frequency identified fruit is 400,000 packed boxes.

Also new is a three-bay cross dock in Wenatchee that allows customers and truckers to consolidate their pickups with additional shipments. A trucker can now pick up several products at one location, rather than making several stops for a single pallet to fill out a load.

"It can be something we sell, but it can also be anything grown in Washington," said Steve Terry, Chelan Fresh CEO. "With the price of fuel these days, this enables us to offer a real service to our customers."

"It's all part of providing our customers with one-stop shopping 52 weeks a year," Divis said.

Diet & Fitness: Nutrition

By Robert H. Shmerling, M.D., Harvard Health Publications

Okay, so maybe you've heard this one before: An apple a day keeps the doctor away. I wouldn't have considered this a myth because everyone knows it's not true, right? Well, not so fast. A number of recent studies have actually put this adage to the test, at least indirectly.

A look at the evidence

Consider the following studies published over the last few years:

• In 2007, researchers from Pennsylvania State University found that study subjects who ate an apple before lunch — about 125 calories — consumed 187 fewer calories overall than subjects who didn't eat an apple. Applesauce and apple juice, on the other hand, had no such effect. The researchers suggested that the work of eating the apple or the time it took to eat it somehow made study subjects think they'd eaten more than they had.
  

  Researchers from Cornell University published a study in 2004 in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry showing that a the flavonoid, quercetin (found primarily in apples, berries and onions) protected the nerve tissue of rats from hydrogen peroxide, a standard oxidative stressor in laboratory preparations. Based on these findings, they theorized that apple consumption might reduce the risk of brain-damaging illnesses, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

  In a 2007 study, researchers in the United Kingdom found that people who ate five apples a week had better lung function and a lower risk of asthma than people who did not eat apples. A prior study suggested the same thing and also linked the beneficial effects of apples to their high concentration of quercetin. Two additional studies have linked apple intake with a lower risk of lung cancer.

  A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last year linked the high intake of flavonoids (a plant-based nutrient) with lower death rates from cardiovascular disease among postmenopausal women. Of course, apples weren't the only source of flavonoids associated with dodging cardiovascular death. Bran, pears, wine, grapefruit, strawberries and chocolate are also high-flavonoid foods whose intakes were associated with lower cardiovascular disease and/or death rates in this study.

  According to a 2006 study, apple juice appeared to "rescue" brain function in mice with Alzheimer's-like disease or with nutritionally deficient diets. In addition to performing better in a maze after the addition of apple juice to their diets, a brain chemical called acetylcholine rose to normal. Low levels of acetylcholine are associated with Alzheimer's disease in humans. The amount of apple juice these animals consumed was equivalent to two 8-ounce glasses or two to three apples a day for humans. By the way, this study was sponsored by the U.S. Apple Association and the Apple Products Research & Education Council.

  Is it time to get on the apple bandwagon?

  Considering the findings of these studies, is it time to make apples a bigger part of your diet? Sure, if you like apples. But I don't think we have enough hard evidence to completely buy into the "apple cure" just yet. Some of this research is based on animals, which we know does not always apply directly to humans. And it's notoriously difficult to perform studies of dietary intake and link them to specific health outcomes when there are so many variables to consider. For example, when compared with people who don't like apples, maybe apple-eaters have other healthy behaviors, such as exercise, that lower their risk of heart or lung disease.

  The bottom line

  Apples may be even better for you than previously appreciated. They are a healthy food choice, especially if eaten instead of less nutritious snacks. But even if apples can't keep the doctor away, eating more apples are unlikely to cause you harm.

  Regardless of how you feel about apples, this is a good example of how some "myths" are just waiting to be transformed into fact. Good research and an open mind is all that lies between the apple-a-day myth and "the next big thing" in healthy diets.
  
  

  Read more on MSN Health & Fitness:

  • An Apple For Your Thoughts

    How the Famed Fruit Protects Your Brain

    The Big Easies

    content by:

    

    Copyright © 2008 by the Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College. Used with permission of StayWell. All rights reserved. Harvard Medical School does not approve or endorse any products on the page. Harvard is the sole creator of its editorial content, and advertisers are not allowed to influence the language or images Harvard uses.

    

Produce Marketing Association applauds Chelan Fresh Marketing on the introduction of the Fruitrition program as recently publicized in The Produce News! This certainly demonstrates your commitment to thinking outside of the box to develop innovative packaging programs that help retailers increase their bottom line. Whether it is to catch a consumer’s eye and stand out on store shelves, to protect a product in transit and extend its shelf life, or to increase efficiencies with packaging that is more responsive to today’s needs – PMA believes that good packaging should not only be innovative, it should make an impact.

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