The standard three meals a day may be falling by the wayside, with breakfast, lunch and dinner now being supplemented by an unofficial fourth meal -- the afternoon snack -- according to a study by Chicago-based Mintel International Group.

Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Company has begun exploring licensing opportunities for its "Reliability Engineering" technology -- a system it says has saved the company considerable sums in manufacturing costs during the past decade.

Dallas-based Suiza Foods Corp. and Franklin Park, Ill.-based Dean Foods Co. announced they have signed a definitive agreement under which the two companies will merge to form a national dairy and specialty foods company with $10 billion in revenue.

Construction has been completed on a new 170,000-sq. ft. distribution center for Alliant Foodservice, Inc.

Americans don't know a lot about genetically modified food ingredients, but still want to be advised of any foodstuff that contains it, according to a consumer survey by the Pew Charitable Trust, a newly formed nonprofit group hoping to stimulate debate on the topic among biotech companies, green groups and federal policymakers.

Another dot com company bit the dust when FoodUSA.com -- an on-line exchange handling the meat and poultry trades -- announced it would shut down after a deal it made to sell the business fell through.

Executives involved in developing Food Engineering's 2001 "New Plant Of The Year," the Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee USA plant at Fort Worth, Tex. (FE June, '01), received the awards at Food Engineering's fifth annual PLANTtech Conference May 22 in Arlington Heights, Ill.

Former President Bill Clinton has been widely criticized for his last-minute presidential pardons but at least one was justified: his pardon of saccharin, falsely accused as a human carcinogen.

Americans aren't sure what organic foods and beverages are, but are quite sure that they are better for them than non-organic foods, according to a recent study that Roper Starch Worldwide, Inc. conducted for organic food maker Walnut Acres.

Three major food processors recently announced the closures of two plants each, though the reasons for the shutdowns varied. General Mills blamed sagging sales of Mexican food ingredients for the