Associated British Foods has confirmed the £344m purchase of Azucarera Ebro, Spain’s biggest sugar producer. Sugar lies at the heart of ABF, where the company has historically shown itself a highly efficient operator. In the belief that European sugar is now past its lowest ebb and that easing agricultural price inflation should broadly work in ABF’s favour, the shares at 653p, down 6½p, or 11 times current-year earnings, remain a solid hold.

Hovis, the £395m bread brand from Premier Foods, has announced that it is to adopt Nimble, the original low fat and calorie bread, into the Hovis family from January 2009. Nimble will be rebranded Hovis Nimble, in a move set to benefit both brands and drive growth in the health sector at a key time when consumers are focused on health and wellbeing. Health is becoming increasingly important to consumers with 57% of the population looking for healthy foods, and is a key component of both brands propositions.

Irish pork contaminated with dioxins poses little risks to health, according to the European Union's (EU's) safety watchdog. The European Food Safety Authority said it has looked at a number of scenarios for people eating the pork containing dioxins and concluded there is "no concern" over health. But it did add that only in the most extreme cases, if someone ate a large amount of Irish pork for the whole of the last three months, and if this was all contaminated with the largest concentration of dioxins, then the risk would rise.

Procter & Gamble is to embark on the most ambitious expansion programme in its history, as it moves to increase its strategic focus on emerging markets despite the current global economic slowdown. Bob McDonald, chief operating officer, told Wall Street analysts that “almost all” the 20 new manufacturing facilities that P&G will open during the next four years will be outside its established markets.

1,600 non–executive office and factory based employees at Kellogg’s will receive a financial boost with an extra weeks pay in their salary (53rd Week’s Pay). On average employees will receive £600 extra in their December pay; this should be especially helpful this year in the challenging economic climate. The 53rd Week’s pay scheme at Kellogg’s has been running, as part of 1600 employee contracts, for over 25 years. A poll of Kellogg’s employees shows that 97% feel it is a great perk. 56% of employees will use the extra week’s pay for Christmas presents, 22% on food and drink over the festive season and 18% for a holiday in the New Year.