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Unilever and Procter & Gamble, two of the world's biggest spenders on advertising, have reassured advertising companies that they will not cut their marketing budgets this year. P&G told the FT it planned to spend about the same percentage of sales on advertising as last year and that it would be increasing its communications in shops. Unilever also said it would sustain levels of total advertising support this year.

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Tesco has been accused of "underhand" tactics after it used a local retailer to 'front' a planning application for a new 80,000 sq ft store in Barnstaple, Devon. According to The Sunday Telegraph, the application was submitted in the name of local business Brian Ford's, an independent retailer Tesco had acquired a year earlier. Rival retailers have described the move as "underhand", though Tesco has denied any wrongdoing or the suggestion that it had attempted to mislead, the paper added.

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Supermarket ready meals have increased in size over the past 15 years, provoking fears that they are exacerbating the national obesity epidemic. The Daily Mail reported figures from the Food Standards Agency that products such as curries, cottage pies, pasta dishes and casseroles were now sometimes more than 50% larger than in the 1990s and that the portion size of some ready meals aimed at children was on par with the size of adult products of 15 years ago.

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The European Union has launched a study into whether a large-scale expansion of genetically modified crops would curb soaring global food prices. Gordon Brown has backed the move after the European Commission said GM crops could play an important role in mitigating the effects of the food crisis, The Independent reported. EU leaders have endorsed plans to review the complex system of approving GM licences, which could be streamlined to make the approval process easier.