There is bad news on the jobs front with up to 290 jobs being lost in Dublin and Donegal.

They’re more elusive than Willy Wonka’s golden ticket but the jury remains out on Tayto’s ‘cheese and onion’ chocolate bar.

Seventy-eight jobs are to be created in Ashbourne in Co Meath.

The managing director of the Largo Foods plant in Donegal has confirmed this afternoon that 60 full-and part-time jobs are to be shed.

Emerging food companies are being urged to take advantage of the advanced food science skills of Teagasc and other third-level research hubs to road test and develop their products.

Ambitions for food export growth are being given a lift with this week’s Bord Bia Food Works open evenings.

Creative food entrepreneurs can avail of expert industry advice and a €5,000 feasibility grant by applying for the new Food Works initiative launched yesterday by Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc.

THE Hunky Dory girls have been given the red card after advertising chiefs ordered the controversial ads not be re-run.

AS the value of Irish food and drink exports approaches a record €9 billion in 2011, the key contribution of Jameson Irish whiskey was recognised last night when it won the Bord Bia Food and Drink Export Award.

A Tipperary farmer looking for diversification ideas has cornered 2% of the Irish market and built up an estimated €1.5m in sales just two years after embarking on a hand-made crisp enterprise using his own potatoes, writes Trish Dromey

AN investment of €2.6 million by Largo Foods in its Co Donegal-based snack-food facility will create 35 jobs.

Largo Foods has announced major investment for its snack-food manufacturing facility in Donegal.

SALT levels remain high in processed foods as the economic climate means many businesses no longer see reducing levels as a priority.

A food firm accused of using sexist ads to promote its crisps has been banned from using the controversial posters of scantily clad models, it was revealed today.

THE makers of Hunky Dorys crisps may have to kick to touch an advertising campaign which has been labelled sexist and misleading.

The IRFU has demanded that crisp manufacturer Hunky Dorys withdraw its current controversial advertising campaign which includes the line "Proud Sponsors of Irish Rugby".

Drogheda United fans will be playing their home matches at Hunky Dorys Park for the next two seasons at least after the club signed a two-year sponsorship deal with the crisp brand.

One hundred and twenty-three jobs are being lost at Largo Foods in Gweedore, Co. Donegal.

JACOB FRUITFIELD, the snack food group in charge of seminal brands such as Kimberley and Fig Rolls, has reportedly entered the bidding fray for C&Cs Tayto crisp brand — for which the first round of bidding closed last week.

THE home of the Tayto crisp is up for sale for €10 million. The company, which has been hit by falling crisp sales, has decided to sell off its main manufacturing Coolock plant on Dublin’s northside, its principal base since 1968.

C&C Group plc, manufacturer, marketer and distributor of drinks and snacks in Ireland, has announced a re-organisation of its snacks division Tayto.

SO far, everything is just hunky dory for the erstwhile smokers in a County Meath food company.

Largo Food, Ireland's largest crisps and snack food manufacturer yesterday announced it had been awarded an annual €5m contract with Tesco UK to produce a range of snacks for the Tesco own brand label.

MEATH-BASED Largo Foods has won a €5 million a year deal to supply supermarket giant Tesco with a range of snack foods.

Two companies have announced plans to hire 104 new workers in the Gaoth Dobhair area of Co Donegal.

Tayto Ireland has announced 164 redundancies with the closure of its plant at Terenure in Dublin.

IRISH confectionery companies participated on the Bord Bia co-ordinated Ireland The food Island pavilion at the three-day ISM International Sweets and Biscuits Fair, which concluded in Cologne, Germany, yesterday.