Smokers in Stoke-on-Trent are still lighting up in public places because the local council has no power to impose fines. Officials failed to complete the legal paperwork by the July 1 deadline, which means smokers cannot be handed £50 on-the-spot fines for breaking the law. The council, named the worst in England by the Audit Commission earlier this year, cannot impose the fines until August 2 - The Times, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Mirror
The price of pasta, the staple of the Italian diet, is going up by 20 per cent. Manufacturers blamed a disruption in supplies of durum wheat, which is used to make pasta, with Italy now importing 40 per cent of its requirements. Syria has banned exports of durum after a poor harvest due to a drought and Canada is diverting supplies to meet a surge in demand for ethanol as a biofuel. There has also been a shortfall in production in Italy because of adverse weather conditions - The Times, The Telegraph
The Food Standards Agency has asked meat processors and traders to stop using Red 2G, a dye used to redden meat in some sausages and burgers sold in Britain that is at the centre of a cancer alert. The request comes after the European Food Safety Authority said that it could no longer guarantee a safe daily limit for consumers to eat meat with the colourant, which is also known as E128 - The Times
SFI Group Horwath Clark Whitehill, the former auditor to SFI Group, the collapsed pub group, has paid £6 million to settle a claim against the firm by the former Slug and Lettuce owner - The Times
Young & Co, the pub operator, reported a 6.3 per cent rise in like-for-like sales in managed pubs in the past three months despite the poor weather in June - The Times, The Telegraph
Humans will be eating meat produced from cloned animals within three years, scientists predicted yesterday. American farmers are expected to be given the go-ahead to sell beef, pig and dairy products produced from the offspring of genetic copies by the end of the decade - The Telegraph