IN less than a fortnight, two Irish food companies, at different ends of the food chain, have announced major developments in the United States, which is a major driver of trends in the global food market.

SETTING up one of the world’s largest cheese plants in the uplands of New Mexico, where the Comanches once hunted the buffalo, was a daunting challenge.

IT HAS taken Glanbia a number of years to redefine itself as a group focused mainly on the dairy sector, involving a range of consumer foods including pig meat, dairy products and food ingredients with an ever increasing emphasis on nutritionals.