Germany reported a first case of the contagious bird flu strain H5N1 on Friday on a small poultry farm in the northeastern state of Brandenburg, the state’s consumer protection ministry said. More »
France confirmed on Friday an outbreak of severe bird flu on a duck farm in the southwest and said the virus was spreading in the region, in a setback for French poultry and foie gras producers recovering from a bird flu epidemic a year ago. More »
Tins of Heinz Baked Beans rest on a palette in the company’s factory in Wigan, Britain, May 21, 2009. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo A Heinz television advert showing people drumming a rhythm on its baked bean cans has been banned by British regulators on safet... More »
150g and 170g bars of Toblerone chocolate are illustrated in Loughborough, Britain, November 8, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Staples British fans of Toblerone chocolate bars have bared their sweet teeth over a cost-cutting move to space out the distinctive jagged peak... More »
German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt answers reporters questions during a Reuters interview in Berlin, Germany July 4, 2016. REUTERS/Joachim Herrmann Germany is considering ordering its poultry farmers to keep their flocks indoors following an outbrea... More »
A man carrying an umbrella passes as storm clouds gather over Shell’s Pulau Bukom oil refinery in Singapore, December 17, 2014. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo During Singapore’s full moon festival last month, employer John Kong was focused more on cost-cutting th... More »
A Microsoft logo is seen next to a cloud the day after Microsoft Corp’s $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn Corp, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) said it will be increasing pricing for its enterpris... More »
A British artist is suing U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying the campaign illegally used his photograph of a bowl of brightly colored Skittles candies to illustrate its position against bringing Syrian refugees to the United States. More »
Some of the products of Smithfield Foods are displayed in front of at a news conference on WH Group’s IPO in Hong Kong April 14, 2014. REUTERS/Bobby Yip Smithfield Foods Inc expects to resume full production on Monday at its North Carolina meat operations, inc... More »
Yoghurt by French foods group Danone is seen in this photo illustration shot in Strasbourg, April 15, 2015. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler/File Photo Dutch chemical technology firm Avantium will announce an initial public offering (IPO) this week to fund production o... More »
New Patriotic Party (NPP) leader Nana Akufo-Addo speaks during a meeting to contest the presidential election results, at Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra December 11, 2012. REUTERS/Luc Gnago An attempt by Ghana’s ruling party to make fun of the main opposition c... More »
Market watchdogs in Shanghai have fined fast-food chain supplier Shanghai Husi Food Co and its U.S. parent OSI Group [OSIGP.UL] more than 24 million yuan ($3.6 million) for making and selling sub-standard products in a meat scandal two years ago, the Shanghai ... More »
A group of 40 investors managing $1.25 trillion in assets have launched a campaign to encourage 16 global food companies to change the way they source protein for their products to help to reduce environmental and health risks. More »
A Hanjin Shipping Co ship is seen stranded outside the Port of Long Beach, California, September 8, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo All Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd (117930.KS) chartered vessels that have completed unloading their cargo have been told to can... More »
A screen displays stock charts while a trader works at his post on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange, May 30, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid With traditional dividend-paying stocks such as utilities and telecom companies trading near record highs, U.S. ... More »
William Ackman, founder and CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Bayliss More »
Three men have been charged with fraud for allegedly selling horsemeat as beef in Britain in 2012, prosecutors said on Friday. More »
An Indian scientist holds a genetically modified (GM) rapeseed crop under trial in New Delhi, India February 13, 2015. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee/File photo A government panel has cleared commercial use of what would be India’s first genetically modified (GM) ... More »
A delivery drone performs a test flight with a Domino’s pizza box in Auckland, New Zealand, August 25, 2016. Domino’s/Handout via REUTERS A New Zealand pizza chain aims to become the world’s first company to offer a commercial drone delivery service, a milesto... More »
LOS ANGELES Consumer groups will deliver a petition from more than 350,000 people to the KFC restaurant chain on Wednesday, calling on the Yum Brands Inc unit (YUM.N) to stop the routine use of antibiotics by the companies that supply its chicken. Several fast... More »
CHICAGO The agricultural unit of German chemicals company Bayer AG will halt future U.S. sales of an insecticide that can be used on more than 200 crops after losing a fight with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the company said on Friday. Bayer lost ... More »
MANILA Patrolling downtown Manila in his new Toyota, Uber driver Daniel Canezal is grumpy. It’s not from the heat, grime or traffic of the capital’s clogged streets – it’s the Philippines’ ramshackle internet service that is making his life a misery. Since sig... More »
DAVAO, Philippines Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte warned mining companies to “shape up”, as he signaled he would prefer ownership of mining assets to be left to local investors. He also said the incoming government may rewrite rules to limit enviro... More »
Amazon.com Inc will launch new lines of its private-label brands in the coming weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The new brands with names like Happy Belly, Wickedly Prime and Mama Bear will include nuts, spices, ... More »
Across the U.S. Farm Belt, top grain handlers have banned genetically modified crops that are not approved in all major overseas markets, shaking up a decades-old system that used the world’s biggest exporting country as a launchpad for new seeds from companie... More »
TOKYO Electronics giant Sony Corp said a factory producing image sensors for smartphone makers will remain closed while it assesses the damage from two deadly earthquakes which hit southern Japan. One of its major customers is Apple, which uses the sensors in ... More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday moved to revoke approval of a drug used to treat certain diseases in pigs because it could leave a cancerous residue that may affect human health. The drug, carbadox, is made by Teaneck, New Jersey-based Phibro A... More »
SINGAPORE/HONG KONG Yum Brands Inc (YUM.N), owner of KFC and Pizza Hut, is in talks with private equity firms including KKR & Co LP (KKR.N) and Hopu Investments to sell a minority stake in its China operations as it prepares to spin off the once booming unit, ... More »
LONDON Iran has managed to sell only modest volumes of oil to Europe since the lifting of sanctions seven weeks ago and several former buyers are staying away, citing legal complications and Tehran’s reluctance to sweeten terms to win back customers. Tehran ha... More »
NEW YORK Warren Buffett will release his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway Inc shareholders after a year when its stock price lagged the broader market by the most since 2009, adding to years of underperformance. The letter, due Saturday, is a must-read on W... More »
OSLO Bees and other pollinators face increasing risks to their survival, threatening foods such as apples, blueberries and coffee worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year, the first global assessment of pollinators showed on Friday. Pesticides, loss of hab... More »
SYDNEY/LONDON The world’s largest miner BHP Billiton (BLT.L) (BHP.AX) is sitting on an $11 billion cash pile and what CEO Andrew Mackenzie does with the money will be a critical test of his ability to invest during the industry’s worst downturn in decades. Ann... More »
The E. coli outbreak that affected dozens of Chipotle Mexican Grill customers in nine states last year is expected to be declared over as soon as Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the government’s investigation. Investigator... More »
BOSTON Sitting on a double-digit loss that is the deepest in his firm’s history, billionaire investor Bill Ackman on Tuesday told investors that he made mistakes last year in not cutting two big positions but said he sees plenty of new investment opportunities... More »
ZURICH Nestle SA has agreed a partnership with Alibaba in China to grow online sales, build key brands and offer new products, the Swiss food group said on Tuesday. Nestle has introduced products including Nido milk powder, Damak chocolate and Nescafe Dolce Gu... More »
(This January 8 story has been corrected in paragraph 10 to say Mark Alexander is “president” not “senior vice president” of Campbell Soup’s Americas Simple Meals and Beverages unit) By Siddharth Cavale and Subrat Patnaik Campbell Soup Co is to start disclosin... More »
PARIS France has detected the first cases of low pathogenic H5N3 bird flu and found more cases of highly infectious strains in an outbreak of the disease in the southwest of the country. Three cases of H5N3 bird flu were found at three different farms in the s... More »
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES In recent days, the largest U.S. managers of private prescription drug benefits have cut off at least eight pharmacies that work closely with drugmakers, intensifying scrutiny of a system that helps inflate drug prices, officials at the be... More »
CHICAGO Standing at the meat counter at a Mariano’s grocery store in Chicago, a half-dozen customers bantered with the butchers about the recent World Health Organization report linking processed meat to colorectal cancer. “Give me two pounds of bacon,” said R... More »
LOS ANGELES California Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday signed a bill that sets the strictest government standards in the United States for the use of antibiotics in livestock production. The move from California, known for its leadership on public health and ... More »
ZURICH Nestle’s health science division is investing $70 million in a product technology center that will become the unit’s new U.S. headquarters and research hub, the division said on Friday. The Bridgewater, New Jersey center will further Nestle’s healthcare... More »
LONDON Glencore (GLEN.L) shares sank more than 10 percent to a new record low on Monday, with the mining and trading company’s drive to sell assets to cut heavy debts failing to soothe fears over slumping metals prices. Traders cited a bearish Investec note th... More »
Google Inc’s YouTube is planning to provide advertisers with data on how many of the ads on its internet video service can be seen by viewers, in response to advertiser complaints, according to the Financial Times. The online story, which cited unnamed people ... More »
ZURICH Novartis plans the first human tests next year of a “smart” contact lens it is developing with Google designed to help restore the eye’s natural autofocus. “This project is progressing well,” Novartis Chief Executive Joe Jimenez told Swiss newspaper Le ... More »
SINGAPORE Carlyle Group’s nominee on the board of China Fishery Group (CNFG.SI) has stepped down, a few months after the U.S. private equity firm declined to take part in the Singapore-listed company’s rights issue. Patrick Siewert resigned as a non-executive ... More »
MUMBAI/ NEW DELHI The Indian government has filed a lawsuit against Swiss food firm Nestle’s Indian unit, seeking 6.4 billion rupees ($99 million) in damages on behalf of consumers after the country’s worst packaged food scare in a decade. Nestle, the first fo... More »
MUMBAI The Indian government has filed a class action suit for 6.4 billion rupees ($99 million) against Nestle’s Indian unit on behalf of the country’s consumers, citing unfair trade practices and the sale of defective goods. Nestle is the first foreign firm t... More »
MUMBAI India will seek damages of 6.39 billion rupees ($99.3 million) from Swiss group Nestle after a food scare involving reports of excess lead in the firm’s popular Maggi noodles forced a nationwide recall, a government official said on Tuesday. Nestle, whi... More »
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) said on Friday its second-quarter profit fell 37 percent, reflecting a significant decline in investment gains and an underwriting loss from insurance operations, which include Geico. Net income for the... More »
LONDON The Chinese slowdown is forcing many Western companies to take a hard look at their businesses there, leading many to reduce investments, costs and product lines and to tackle increasing bad debts. Double digit growth rates during the first decade of th... More »
MUMBAI An Indian court has concluded hearing a case filed by Nestle India challenging a local regulator’s report that Maggi instant noodles contained excess lead, a lawyer for the company said. The Bombay High Court will give a judgment at a later date, Rajesh... More »
WASHINGTON White House state dinners are not normally known for centerpieces made of brussels sprouts, green smoothies and eating with your fingers. But when your guests are 55 students who won a nationwide healthy recipe contest, it is a fitting feast to prom... More »
(This July 1 story has been corrected to remove reference to Brazil being second-largest market for Apple) By Yasmeen Abutaleb SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff capped off her U.S. tour on Wednesday with a visit to Silicon Valley, whe... More »
CHICAGO Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) will start a business loan program for small sellers in the United Kingdom on Tuesday and is looking to launch it this year in seven more countries including China. Until now, the e-retailer has offered the service only in the U... More »
CANNES (This version of the story corrects figures on Publicis contract wins, paragraph 13) The reluctance of big companies to spend at a time of lacklustre global growth and fewer major sporting events this year are dampening demand for advertising, said the ... More »
