Lindt cuts its 2026 sales forecast to almost no growth and plans to lower its chocolate prices. Shoppers in parts of Europe bought less after its price rises

The rest of the day

16 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   Namibia stops livestock trade after foot-and-mouth

   Namibia confirmed foot-and-mouth disease, a disease of farm animals, on 23 September in Karasburg, an area in the south that had been free of it. [7] Ten of 11 samples tested positive and 63 cattle were affected. [7] Namibia banned livestock trade and slaughter nationwide, and the world animal health body withdrew the south's disease-free status. [7] That stopped exports to China, South Africa and the United States. [7] Once the outbreak was found only in the Kharas region, restrictions north of Namibia's disease fence were partly lifted. [7]

   Why it matters — Livestock is about 3.1% of Namibia's economy, and the US farm agency's report puts the cost at up to 12,000 lost years of work in 2026-27. [7] Pig slaughter and trade remain stopped nationwide, causing pork shortages and price spikes. [7]

2. 03

   Lab-grown meat plant may go to its creditors

   Believer Meats grew meat from animal cells in tanks called bioreactors, and stopped work in December. [8] Its two main creditors, the builder Gray Construction and Ameris Bank, are weighing a joint bid for its $150m plant in Wilson, North Carolina. [8] They would pay partly with the debt Believer owes them: Gray says it is owed $36.4m, and Ameris lent $25m. [8] UPSIDE Foods, another lab-grown meat firm, dropped its $50m offer for the plant in August. [8]

   UPSIDE's dropped offer$50m

   Owed to the builder$36.40m

   Lent by the bank$25m

   Why it matters — Believer raised almost $400m, including from the investment arms of the food giants ADM and Tyson. [8] The court-appointed manager says the creditors will not keep paying to run the empty plant for much longer, and any sale still needs a court's approval. [8]

3. 04

   McVitie's owner sells more but earns less

   Pladis, the British company behind McVitie's biscuits and Godiva chocolate, has just published its results for 2025. [9] Sales rose 1.2% to 3.3 billion pounds. [9] Operating profit, what is left from sales after the costs of running the business, fell 12.4% to 301.6 million pounds. [9] Pladis blamed dearer raw ingredients, swings in exchange rates and a weak economy, and called 2025 a demanding year for the food industry. [9]

   +1.2%Sales

   vsvs

   -12.4%Operating profit

   Why it matters — Nine-tenths of Pladis' sales are its own brands, which sell at a higher price than supermarket own-label packs. [9] It sells in more than 110 countries and is expanding McVitie's in China. [9]

4. 05

   UK watchdog bans a Huel advert

   Britain's Advertising Standards Authority, which polices adverts, banned an Instagram and YouTube advert for Huel, a maker of meal-replacement shakes. [10] In it, the TV personality Spencer Matthews told of a man in an ultramarathon who only ate Huel and won by miles. [10] The watchdog said viewers could take this to mean living only on Huel was healthy and fine for top athletes. [10][11] It also noted a serving gives up to 400 calories, so one per meal falls short of the 2,000 to 2,500 a day recommended in the UK. [11]

   Why it matters — Huel said the story was told as a surprise, not as advice, and that it has complied with the ruling. [10] It is not the first time the watchdog has ruled against Huel for suggesting its products could replace ordinary food. [10]

5. 06

   Cow-methane vaccine maker raises money and cuts staff

   ArkeaBio, a Boston start-up making a vaccine to cut the methane cows burp out, raised $15m in a round led by AgriZeroNZ. [12] It also let go about a third of its staff, to focus on its first market, New Zealand, and its first sales. [12] The vaccine makes a cow's immune system work against the gut microbes that turn hydrogen into methane. [12] Its first product aims to cut methane by 10-15% and would be given every three months. [12]

   Why it matters — Methane is a powerful heat-trapping gas, and on farms it comes from manure and from cattle burping. [12] A feed additive called Bovaer promises a 30% cut in milking cows, and ArkeaBio expects to apply to New Zealand's regulators next year. [12]

6. 07

   Farm marketplace teams up with Google on AI

   Farmers Business Network (FBN), a US online marketplace where farmers buy seed and supplies, borrow money and sell grain, announced a partnership with Google's AI Futures Fund this week. [13] They will build what they call an AI context engine, one constantly updated picture of a farm's soil, crops, money, machines and markets. [13] FBN gets early access to Google's newest AI models to test them on farm work. [13] Early test users get the first features now, and a wider rollout is due this autumn. [13]

   Why it matters — FBN's cofounder Charles Baron says today's AI gives farmers general advice that does not connect to buying or selling anything. [13] He says Google will have no access to farms' data, which FBN keeps. [13]

7. 08

   Money for new food firms stays near its low

   Investors put $3bn into new farm and food technology companies from April to June, against $12.1bn at the 2022 peak, according to DigitalFoodLab, which tracks the deals. [14] Every quarter for about two years has landed between $2.5bn and $3.5bn. [14] PitchBook, another tracker, counted 107 farm-technology deals and 142 food-technology deals in the quarter, both the fewest in eight years. [14] The figures come from an article by two investors at Peakbridge, a venture firm. [14]

   Why it matters — The same authors say buyers still pay well for nutrition firms that can prove their products work. [14] Procter & Gamble paid $3.8bn for Thorne, a vitamin maker that runs clinical studies, close to eight times its yearly sales. [14]

8. 09

   Swiss studio raises $4.5m to start food firms

   FOOD FOUNDERS Studio, a Swiss firm that builds food-technology start-ups around problems big food makers already have, raised 4 million euros ($4.5m). [15] The money came from the private investment offices of wealthy families and from individual investors, and will build its next two companies. [15] Its first, SentiaNova, removes the off flavours in proteins made from pulses, the crop family that includes peas and lentils. [15] It is staying away from costly areas with long approval times, such as lab-grown meat and fermentation. [15]

   Why it matters — Cofounder Giacomo Cattaneo says big food companies have cut their own research budgets, so new ideas have to come from outside. [15] He says the studio wants to be fast and to work on what the industry needs now. [15]

9. 10

   Gene editors take on strawberries that fail in heat

   Plantik Biosciences, a start-up based in France, and Hudson River Biotechnology, a gene-editing company, are working together on strawberries that keep fruiting in high heat. [16] Heat stops strawberry flowers turning into fruit and harms the fruit's quality. [16] Plantik found the DNA switches for heat tolerance in tomatoes, and Hudson River will make matching edits in strawberries without adding DNA from other species. [16] Trials to check the trait are under way. [16]

   Why it matters — The aim is a heat-tolerance trait any strawberry breeder can license, since most cannot afford gene editing themselves. [16] Hudson River says new EU rules that make gene-edited crops easier to approve brought a surge of interest, and AgFunder, whose news site reported this, has invested in Plantik. [16]

10. 11

    England's drought shrinks the pumpkin crop

    Pumpkin growers in southern England say this summer's drought left their pumpkins smaller and ripening early. [17] Summer 2026 was the UK's hottest on record, with 40 days above 30C against the old record of 34. [17] Eleanor Gilbert, whose family farms on the Hampshire-Berkshire border, said her pumpkins were 50-60% down. [17] A grower near the Oxford Canal who sells to restaurants said his crop came in at half what he expected. [17]

    Why it matters — Pumpkins are about 90% water, so a dry summer stops them growing. [17] Martin Emmett, who chairs a growers' board for vegetables and potatoes, says there will still be plenty of British pumpkins in the shops for carving. [17]

11. 12

    Food makers buy from more places after the heat

    Big ingredient makers told FoodNavigator, a food trade news site, how this summer's European heatwave is changing where they buy. [6] Tate & Lyle, an ingredients firm, said it spread its maize buying across more regions after France's 2022 drought, so it was better prepared for this year's poor French harvest. [6] In Britain, shops and restaurants had to buy iceberg lettuce and broccoli from Spain and the Netherlands in the middle of the home growing season. [6] Kerry, another ingredients firm, said climate events now hit cocoa, sugar, coconuts and grains. [6]

    Why it matters — The firms admit a second supplier helps little if the same heatwave hits both. [6] Farmers in the worst-hit places risk losing their buyers, and Ronald Guendel, who leads an international farm-business association, says food firms should help them adapt instead. [6]

12. 13

    Most shoppers want to eat better; few think they do

    Ahold Delhaize, which owns supermarket chains in Europe and the US serving 77 million customers a week, surveyed 8,000 shoppers in seven countries. [18] It found 92% want to eat more healthily, but only 14% think their diet is very healthy. [18] Only 13% feel very confident telling healthy food from unhealthy food. [18] Shoppers said cheaper healthy food would do most to change what they buy. [18]

    92%Want to eat better

    vsvs

    14%Think they already do

    Why it matters — The UK government plans to make large food companies report how much healthy food they sell, and to set targets for it. [18] Eighteen companies disclosed such figures or set targets in 2026, up from seven in 2024, the report says. [18]

13. 14

    Online grocer sells the food shops turn down

    Misfits Market, a US online grocer founded in 2018 to sell misshapen fruit and vegetables, now earns much of its money from packaged food. [19] It buys goods ordinary shops will not take, such as products with only months left before they expire, or in old packaging, and sells them at a steep discount. [19] Its founder, Abhi Ramesh, said packaged goods make up 50-60% of most orders. [19] Its service storing and delivering other brands' chilled food has grown 50-fold since 2024. [19]

    Why it matters — Ramesh says the grocery and the delivery service each bring in nine-figure revenue, meaning at least $100m. [19] Both run on about 750,000 square feet of chilled and frozen warehouses. [19]

14. 15

    Hershey bets on new Reese's bars

    Hershey, the US chocolate maker, launched two new Reese's products: a Caramel Block and a White Peanut Butter Cup Trio. [20] Reese's peanut-butter cups are among its best-known sweets. [20] The launch follows the first new Reese's Pieces sweet in a decade, which came out in July. [20] The food trade press says sweet makers are stretching familiar brands instead of starting new ones, because shoppers are choosier about treats. [20]

    Why it matters — Lindt is answering cautious shoppers with lower prices. [4] Hershey is answering them with new bars under a name they already trust. [20]

15. 16

    Nestle takes Starbucks fruit drinks home

    Nestle, the world's biggest food company, launched Starbucks Refreshers Concentrates, fruit-flavoured caffeine drinks that people mix at home with water, milk or lemonade. [14][21] Nestle sells Starbucks products in nearly 80 countries under a deal made in 2018. [21] In Starbucks cafes, Refreshers have grown into a $2bn brand, second only to espresso drinks. [21] Flavours include strawberry acai and mango dragonfruit. [21]

    Why it matters — Younger shoppers increasingly want caffeine drinks that do not taste of coffee, the trade press reports. [21] It is a crowded market, with Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Red Bull and Monster all selling cold caffeine drinks. [21]

16. 17

    Nestle says its dairy emissions fell a quarter

    At a Climate Week panel in New York, Nestle said greenhouse gas emissions from its dairy supply chain are down 26% since 2018, and methane down 25%. [22] Farmers on the panel said they lack the money to change how they farm. [22] Austin Allred, who runs a 7,000-cow dairy in Washington state, said farm investments must pay back within days or weeks. [22] California Dairies, a co-operative of nearly 300 farms, supplies Nestle with milk. [22]

    Why it matters — Big food firms want lower emissions from the milk they buy, and the cost of changing falls first on the farms. [22] Louis Dreyfus, a global crop processing company, has worked with Nestle since 2024 to help Argentine farmers grow soy and maize for cow feed with methods that cut emissions. [22]