What the papers say - July 5, 2007

Staff and regulars at a pub in Scarborough have organised a whip-round for Martin Whisker, 42, the first man to be fined £80 for flouting England's smoking ban. The decorator spent Monday night in a police cell after chainsmoking his way through a pack of Lambert & Butler "as a matter of principle" - The Times, The Sun​

Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns moved higher for a second consecutive day. The pub operators gained from positive sentiment towards companies that could go on to tap the value of their property portfolios. Greene King renewed talk on the subject on Tuesday after it said that it would seek to create a property joint venture for the pubs it owns that are not yet securitised. Punch Taverns rose 38p to £13.00 yesterday while Enterprise Inns was up 13½p to 700½p - The Times​

Organic fruit and vegetables may be better for the heart and general health than eating conventionally grown crops, new research has found. A ten-year study comparing organic tomatoes with standard produce found that they had almost double the quantity of antioxidants called flavonoids which help to prevent high blood pressure and thus reduce the likelihood of heart disease and strokes - The Times​

Europe's wine lake will be drained and millions of its vines uprooted in an effort to tackle the onslaught from producers in the New World, under plans unveiled yesterday by Brussels. The European Union produces and consumes more than two-thirds of the world's wine. But imports from Australia, the US, Chile and others have displaced traditional winemakers, especially in the budget range - Financial Times, The Times, The Telegraph, Daily Mail​

Improved first-half sales helped shares in Cosentino Signature Wines, the luxury California wine maker, recover some lost ground Wednesday, following the share price collapse of last November. The Aim-listed company, based in the Napa Valley, said total sales for the first six months of the financial year rose 62 per cent year-on-year, with retail sales up 24 per cent - Financial Times​

Coca-Cola may try to buy Cadbury Schweppes's Snapple brand, Neville Isdell, Coke chief executive, said yesterday. Mr Isdell told Reuters that Coke was evaluating whether to bid for Snapple to expand its presence in bottled teas. Coke recently paid $4.1bn (£2bn) for Glaceau, ownerof the Vitaminwater brand, to strengthen its positionin healthy kinds of soft drinks - Financial Times, The Telegraph​

Britain's Scotch whisky producers believe they could see a quadrupling of exports to India within five years following this week's abolition of punitive import tariffs by the Indian government. The decision to scrap an "additional duty", which Brussels has said imposes a tax burden of as much as 550 per cent on exports to India, may not, however, be enough to prompt the European Union (EU) to call off a complaint to the World Trade Organisation over the issue - The Telegraph​

Pre-packed sandwiches can contain as much salt as up to seven bags of crisps, according to new research by the BBC and a health lobby group. The research, carried out for the BBC and published today by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) reveals that many shop-bought sandwiches contain more than a third (2g) of the day's recommended maximum salt limit (6g) in a single serving - Daily Mail​

More than half of today's teenagers have never sampled the delights of a Melton Mowbray pork pie, it is claimed. A similar proportion have yet to experience the joys of steak and kidney, while Devon clotted cream, faggots, haggis and Caerphilly cheese are also a mystery to them. Instead they are filling up on ready meals, fast food and takeaway curries, according to a study into the eating habits of today's youth by supermarket chain Sainsburys - Daily Mail, Daily Express​