Things you didn't know…

Innocent sells two million bottles of its smoothies every week.

Grown in the dark, white asparagus has a milder flavour than the green variety grown in the UK.

In Germany, white asparagus is traditionally served with schnitzel (escalope) or with black forest cured ham, boiled potatoes and hollandaise sauce.

Overall UK sales of organic products increased by 1.7% in 2008 to over £2.1 billion.

Asda showed the strongest growth of the multiple retailers, increasing sales of organic products by 25% in 2008 and its share of the market from 8% to around 10%. Tesco is still the market leader in terms of value despite a fall in organic sales of 9.9% in 2008.

Some 36% of committed organic consumers say they expect to spend more on organic food in 2009, and only 15% expect to spend less.

Animal welfare issues attracted a high public profile in 2008 and sales of organic milk, cheese, some meatand poultry grow by 10.6%, 11.5%, 13.3% and 17.7% respectively, demonstrating that where the benefits of organic production are understood commitment remains firm among ethical consumers.

New figures from the GMB union show that 1,131 pubs with freeholds owned by seven pubcos have closed within the last three years.

In West Midlands 232 pubs closed making the region the highest in Britain for the number of these pubs closing. It was followed by South East, North West, Yorkshire and Humberside.

ASDA has announced that local food sales are up 41% on this time last year in England and Wales.

Scotland and Northern Ireland has also shown a marked increase in sales, with 29% increase in sales.

Property agent Christie + Co has reported a 12% increase in the number of pub transactions it undertook during the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same period 12 months ago.