The intermediaries then sell on the produce to food-processing companies.

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American farmers and food-processing companies are furious that what they see as bogus health and safety concerns are being used to keep their products out of European and other markets worldwide.

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Ready meals will become more popular: Brazilians still cook most meals from scratch, even though the country has some of the world's biggest food-processing companies, which export their tins and sachets to America and Europe.

ECONOMIST: Domestic labour

Diversey, No. 121 on the 2010 list of largest U.S. companies, makes commercial cleaning compounds and equipment and its offerings include commercial floor wax, sanitizers for restaurants and food-processing companies, cleansers and deodorizers for restrooms, and industrial degreasers.

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One part of the endowment focuses on community development work, mostly in the outer boroughs, such as job training, nonprofit real estate development, the Freelancers Union health care program and support for food businesses from artisanal food companies arising in Brooklyn to larger food processing plants that provide employment.

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Using a platform developed by e-commerce and payment processing First Data in use by Cold Stone and other food service companies, the eGift takes the concept of the virtual gift and brings it back to reality.

FORBES: Cold Stone Turns To Social Media To Sweeten Sales

It is thanks to companies like these that Italy still exports more food-processing machines, washing machines, fridges, shoes and shoe-making machines, ski boots, ceramic tiles, jewels, woollen and silk clothes, radiators and boilers, optical frames and neck-ties than any other country in the world.

ECONOMIST: A survey of Italy

But four-year-old Baoyuanfeng, like many companies in China's food industry, is relatively small, with a processing capacity of 100, 000 birds a day, according to a profile of the company published on a local website.

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