Safe Foods Corporation has announced that the FDA and USDA have approved the company’s patented Cecure® food-safety technology for a new post-chill application to raw poultry. The FDA and USDA approved Cecure for a poultry pre-chill application in 2004. Cecure’s active ingredient, cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), is the active ingredient used in many mouth rinses and throat lozenges and has been safely consumed in a number of over-the-counter oral hygiene products for more than 55 years.

Catalyst Equity Group LLC has announced it has acquired Carruthers Equipment Co. of Warrenton, Oregon. Carruthers Equipment is a producer of size reduction, filling and slicing equipment for the food processing industry. The acquisition expands Catalyst’s newly-formed Motus3 platform of food processing equipment companies and compliments the current lineup of stuffing, grinding, portioning, cooking and chilling equipment offered under the Marlen Research Corp. and Reno Technology brands. Gary Wygal, president and sole shareholder of Carruthers during the past 18 years, will remain with Carruthers to ensure a smooth transition and will continue to be involved in business development of Carruthers products.

Bosch Packaging Technology, the leading supplier of total solutions in packaging and process technology, has entered into a licensing agreement with Paal Verpackungsmaschinen GmbH. The agreement concentrates on cartoners for folding cartons. Under license from Bosch, Paal will produce cartoners for the food sector which will be integrated perfectly into the packaging lines of both companies. The licensing agreement with Paal invloves the CBI and CBC cartoning machines.

The Innovator newsletter features developments in machinery systems for food processing, product handling, inspection and packaging. Published twice a year, the Innovator is available free by contacting Heat and Control at (800) 227-5980 or visiting www.heatandcontrol.com.

Kemin Industries’ Food Ingredients division has received the Frost & Sullivan Award for Brand Development Strategy Leadership with its product, FORTIUM® in the European rosemary extracts market. The award recognizes the company’s ability to best perceive consumer needs and develop marketing strategies. Kemin is a leading global supplier of superior shelf-life solutions to preserve the freshness and enhance the quality of human food. Kemin’s world-class customer service team creates tailor-made formulations and delivers rigorous product development support.

Ameritas Group has announced a new line of dental plans called Sensible Choice, SM featuring benefits that are easy for members to understand and use, flexible cost management for ASO and qualifying fully insured groups, the ability for employees or their dentists to submit claims to Ameritas Group for reimbursement, and the added cost-saving power of PPO. Ameritas Group, a division of Ameritas Life Insurance Corp., a UNIFI company, is a provider of dental and eye care products and services.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Carter & Burgess, a professional services firm headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 1939, Carter & Burgess is a nationally recognized architecture, engineering, design and planning firm serving public and private clients in the fields of transportation, water infrastructure programs, building programs, land development and planning. The company is ranked 34th among the Top 500 U.S. Design Firms by Engineering News-Record. Jacobs provides technical, professional and construction services globally.

Silliker has announced that it has acquired 70 percent of the Canadian company JR Laboratories. Founded in 1988 by Ray Cheung and Jimmy Chang, JR Laboratories is located in Burnaby, British Columbia. Registered to ISO 9001:2000, JR Laboratories is a food testing and technical consulting laboratory in Western Canada. JR Laboratories serves many of the country’s major food, beverage, natural health, and pharmaceutical companies.

Henningsen Cold Storage Co. has announced plans to construct a new 5.3 million cubic foot temperature controlled Logistics Center to support the growing demand customers in the greater Portland metropolitan marketplace. Construction will begin immediately with completion in the summer of 2008. The facility will be located in the Portland suburb of Gresham, less than one mile from Henningsen’s existing Portland operation. Phase I will offer at least 16,000 pallet positions, with a variety of configurations and temperature ranges. The eventual build out of the facility will be nearly 10 million cubic feet.

Smurfit-Stone Container Corp.’s Uncasville, Conn., containerboard mill has earned the Safety and Health Recognition Program (SHARP) award, the highest certification given to small employers for workplace safety and health. The mill is one of nine Connecticut companies to receive the recognition by the Connecticut Department of Labor’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (CONN-OSHA) and U.S. Department of Labor. The SHARP designation allows Smurfit-Stone exemption from OSHA’s general schedule inspection list during the two-year award period.

Adept Technology Inc., a provider of intelligent vision-guided robotics and robotics services, has announced it has signed two new regional sales representative agencies to continue its distribution channel expansion in North America. AutoMotion Technologies of Lake City, Fla., will expand Adept’s reach in Florida and Puerto Rico while Innovative Automation Solutions, of Platte City, Mo., will cover the Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska region.

In October, Georgia-Pacific announced service extensions of its Packaging Systems Optimization (PSO™) Program to non-customers at PACK EXPO 2007 in Las Vegas. The PSO program is designed to help companies achieve greater profitability and sustainability by identifying packaging supply chain inefficiencies. The newly announced service extension will now enable eligibility of non-customers to engage in PSO assessments to gain greater insight into how to optimize packaging supply chains.