This article suggests that some brands of vegetarian sausages and burgers contain more salt than the meat equivalent. Researchers found that some vegetarian burgers contain six times more salt than a meat burger with others containing as much salt as five packets of crisps. Fry's Vegetarian Traditional Sausage contained 2.8g of salt, more than four times the pork equivalent meaning that just two sausages would provide the recommended daily intake for an adult. Other leading brands also fared quite badly in the test.

According to this article music can enhance the way a wine tastes. Research by psychologists has shown that people perceive a change in taste when different music is played. Researchers found that cabernet sauvignon was most affected by powerful and heavy music whereas chardonnay was affected by zingy and refreshing sounds.

In Tesco's latest clamp down on underage drinking the supermarket has been refusing to sell to customers if there are accompanied by their children. In one case mentioned in this article a 39 year old lady was refused alcohol because she was shopping with her 18 year old son, despite the fact her son is old enough to purchase alcohol. In another a man was refused alcohol because he had his 15 year old daughter with him. He was told that Tesco do not sell alcohol to people who have children with them. It seems a little odd to think that someone who was actually buying alcohol for a minor would have the child accompany them in the trip around the store. In my experience when you see this happening the children usually wait outside whilst the adult purchases the drink. One thing is for sure Tesco can be little overzealous in their attitude, despite being 30 and clearly old enough to drink I regularly get asked for ID when purchasing alcohol at Tesco and nine times out of ten I don't have any ID on me because I don't expect to get asked at my age. I am finding now that a trip to Tesco means I must take my driving licence with me. The annoying thing is the people that usually ask me for ID look half my age and probably are not old enough to sell alcohol without being supervised anyway.

Tesco has recently spent nearly £1 billion to acquire stores in South Korea. It has owned stores in Korea for nine years but is now buying 36 Homever discount hypermarkets. Tesco already runs the Homeplus chain in South Korea which comprises of 66 hypermarkets and 72 Homeplus Express stores but the new stores will put Tesco neck and neck with Shinsegae who are the current market leader in the country.

Waitrose has been experiencing a pasta shortage after it ran out of suppliers of its own brand dried pasta at the start of April. The problem was caused by a row between the supermarket group and its supplier in Italy over quality issues. Waitrose customers have for the last few weeks only been able to buy other branded pasta from the store, most of which costs more than the own brand alternative. The supermarket chain has now said that the issue has been resolved and that the shelves would be fully stocked within two weeks.

A man in Suffolk has found a baby tarantula in a bunch of grapes he brought from Asda. He caught the spider which was later rehomed at a local reptile centre. I hate stories like this, they always make me a little wary when buying fruit.

Waitrose have recalled organic eggs from one of its suppliers after fears they could be contaminated. It is thought that the chickens had eaten lead shot. The affected eggs are Blacktail Columbian organic eggs with the code OUK20137 stamped on them. Other organic eggs from Waitrose are not affected. Customers who have purchased the eggs are advised to return them for a refund.

Tesco is currently having talks about selling its property website. The website was launched in June last year with a view to undercutting traditional home sellers. At the time some estate agents took legal action to stop properties they were marketing appearing on Tesco's website. Now one of those who originally criticised the website are having talks regarding buying the business. Spicerhaart is the UK's largest independently owned estate agency network. They would own and operate the business with Tesco marketing it.

Well, maybe not world domination but lots more coffee shops. Whitbread plans to double the number of Costa coffee shops and increase the number of Premier Inn rooms by 50%. The company announced the plans after it unveiled better than expected profits. There are currently 992 Costa coffee outlets worldwide but Whitbread will increase this to 2,000 in the next five years with half of the new shops being in Britain.