BARTOW, Fla. <\/strong>\u2013 In an effort to play a larger role in helping consumers make informed decisions about food and nutrition, the Florida Department of Citrus partnered with the International Food Information Council (IFIC)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IFIC, a public education organization based in Washington, D.C., brings together health and nutrition professionals, educators, government officials, and food, beverage, and agricultural industry professionals to provide outreach on the issues of health, nutrition and food safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a charter member of IFIC\u2019s new Associate Member program, the Department becomes an active part of a community working to develop innovative and collaborative initiatives to meet consumer needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot only does this partnership connect us with leaders in the food and agricultural industries, it provides us with access to insight and expertise that can help guide the way we communicate with consumers on the issues of biotechnology and food science,\u201d said David Steele, chief marketing officer of the FDOC. \u201cAs the Florida Citrus industry continues to develop new solutions to fight citrus greening, the value of this partnership will only increase.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of the membership, the Department will be involved in forums on dietary patterns and energy balance as well as agricultural technology and safe food production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the latest step in the Department\u2019s effort to build stronger relationships with food and nutrition communicators. Last month, the Department announced a new partnership<\/a> with the United States Department of Agriculture\u2019s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion\u2019s MyPlate program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About the Florida Department of Citrus<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Florida Department of Citrus is an executive agency of Florida government charged with the marketing, research and regulation of the Florida citrus industry.\u00a0 Its activities are funded by a tax paid by growers on each box of citrus that moves through commercial channels.\u00a0 The industry employs nearly 62,000 people, provides an annual economic impact of nearly $10.7\u00a0billion to the state, and contributes hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues that help support Florida\u2019s schools, roads and health care services. For more information about the Florida Department of Citrus, please visit\u00a0<\/em>FloridaCitrus.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the latest step in the Department\u2019s effort to build stronger relationships with food and nutrition communicators. BARTOW, Fla. \u2013 In an effort to play a larger role in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":340,"template":"","fdoc_news_item_category":[80,83],"fdoc_citrus_type":[],"fdoc_health_category":[],"class_list":["post-339","fdoc-news-item","type-fdoc-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","fdoc_news_item_category-fdoc","fdoc_news_item_category-nutriition"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc-news-item\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc-news-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/fdoc-news-item"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"fdoc_news_item_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc_news_item_category?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"fdoc_citrus_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc_citrus_type?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"fdoc_health_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc_health_category?post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}