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The article discusses the carbon dioxide shortage in Europe. Topics discussed include the Paris climate agreement which sets limits on emissions of carbon dioxide to prevent global temperatures, uses of food-grade carbon dioxide, impact of the shortage to foodmakers' supply chain, sources of carbon dioxide in Europe and increase in demand for food and drink in Europe due to the World Cup and sunny weather.

The article discusses regulation of the food safety industry as of 2013 after an incident in which European food manufacturers sold horsemeat labeled as beef. Topics include the legal aspects of food labels; public opinion and social attitudes toward eating horsemeat; and fraud prevention measures in the food industry with comments by the grocery store chain Tesco.

The article observes that concern is growing over junk-food advertisements aimed at children. Recent reports in America and Europe have put the food industry on notice that unless the advertising of junk food to children is curbed, legislative action may follow. If the food industry does not voluntarily start promoting more foods that are lower in calories, fat, salt and added sugars, America's Institute of Medicine believes Congress should take action. The European Commission launched a public consultation to find ways to reduce obesity, and is exploring various ideas, among them persuading the food and advertising industries to restrict junk-food marketing voluntarily. Nevertheless, some food companies are finding opportunities to sell healthier products.

Denis Hennequin, who ran McDonald's in France, is now trying to repeat the success he had in his home country as the new head of the American fast-food giant's European operations. France is the only place in Europe that has consistently loved McDonald's since the first outlet opened there in 1979. A recent study by MKG Consulting in Paris found McDonald's largely dominates the French restaurant sector. Hennequin's strategy for France focused on sprucing up drab restaurants, improving the menu and introducing visitor days. Despite a long conflict at one Paris branch over low pay, he managed to be on good terms with the country's unions. Hennequin will try to apply some of these lessons to other European countries. Sales in Germany and Britain, the two most important European markets, are sluggish. Italy and Belgium remain tricky.

It may seem an exaggeration to describe the scandal overwhelming Royal Ahold as "Europe's Enron"--but in most of the ways that matter it is true enough. Certainly, the world's third-biggest food retailer, after Wal-Mart and Carrefour, poses none of the systemic financial risks of Enron, which was both deeply in debt and the world's main electricity market-maker. That apart, the similarities between the former Texan powerhouse and the Dutch retailer are striking, from vain yet secretive executives to the woeful corporate governance, aggressive earnings management and accounting "irregularities" to auditors who were, at best, asleep on the job. Now, at least, Europeans should stop smugly believing that corporate malfeasance is an American vice that cannot occur in the old continent. Instead, they should fix their corporate-governance and accounting problems with as much vigor as their American cousins showed after the Enron wake-up call.

Discusses the declining creditworthiness of the food retailing industry and the telecommunication industry in Europe by Standard & Poor's (S&P). Thought that the structure of Europe's retailing market and how companies have responded to it can explain the decline; How companies have expanded at an accelerated pace; Restructuring plans of some retailers.

The article discusses U.S. food retailers, focusing on waste that the industry creates due to excess food that is not purchased, but instead thrown away. Such waste is termed shrink, the article states, and statistics are given which estimate annual shrink in the U.S. food industry. Topics include supermarket profit margins, European food retailer shrink rates, and the reasons behind the high shrink rates in the U.S. Also discussed are efforts to reduce the shrink rates.

The article examines some steps that are being taken by a number of governments to alleviate the harmful impact of high food prices. The author notes that some countries in Asia, South America and Eastern Europe have cut food exports to bolster domestic stocks of food. The economic disadvantages associated with the restriction of food exports are described.

Genetically modified (GM) food provokes skirmishes all over the world, but the main battle is between America, which champions the stuff, and the European Union (EU), which resists it. Proponents of GM crops say they are safe, good for the environment and may provide cheaper and better food. It is perhaps little wonder that Europeans, remembering such scares as mad-cow disease, have balked at the prospect of eating or growing GM food. As for growing GM crops, experience outside Europe suggests that they are no worse for the environment than normal farming, and can be better. As GM technology develops, continued European rejection of GM could mean it loses out on future crops that might benefit its landscape, and boost its farm and science industries.

This article discusses issues related to the food industry in Europe. Sinnce the mid-1980s, the world's biggest food companies have been gobbling up smaller European firms as if they were so many canapés. Hundreds more acquisitions, by big and small companies alike, are expected this year. But many such deals have already gone sour. The share prices of three of the most acquisitive British food companies as Hillsdown Holdings PLC, Hazlewood Foods PLC and Albert Fisher Group, rocketed during their buying sprees in the 1980s.

Reports that Smithfield of London, England, the western world's oldest and largest meat market, can continue only if it is radically overhauled to conform with strict European Community standards. Corporation of London's modernization scheme for 1992; Issue of shrinking business.

Highlights some of the differences in food retailing businesses in France and Britain, companies that have broadly similar populations and income levels. Hypermarkets in France; The high profit margins of supermarkets in Britain; Own-label marketing; `Retail Competition in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Industry: The Case of France and the UK,' by Judy Corstjens, Marcel Corstjens and Rajiv Lal.

The article speculates if the American company Sara Lee Corp. can do in Europe what it has managed to accomplish in the U.S. In the U.S. the company has in effect given up trying to coax growth out of its food businesses. Although its head John Bryan says that products other than food present the most promising opportunities in Europe, he also talks of having a go at the market for packaged meats there, and Sara Lee recently took over two East European coffee makers. Considering the low profit margins in Europe's food business, its lingering attraction for Bryan may be that it seems safe. The same cannot be said for another potential investment, that of shirts and t-shirts.