Nonfoods

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.

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.

Aldi has introduced a new line of gourmet foods called Grandessa that features an assortment of upscale offerings, according to a report in the Moberly Monitor-Index in central Missouri.

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.

ST. LOUIS - Aurora Foods Inc. on Friday announced that it has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and has completed its previously announced merger with Pinnacle Foods Holding Corporation. The reorganized company has been renamed Pinnacle Foods Group Inc. and is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J.