Objective: To assess availability, variety, price and quality of different food products in a convenience sample of supermarkets in Germany and the USA. Design: Cross-sectional study using an adapted version of the Bridging the Gap Food Store Observation Form. Setting: Information on availability, quality, price and variety of selected food products in eight German and seven US supermarkets (discount and full service) was obtained and compared by country. Results: A general tendency for lower prices of fruits and vegetables in Germany was observed, while produce quality and variety did not seem to differ between countries, with the exception of the variety of some vegetables such as tomatoes. Chips and cereals did not differ significantly in variety nor price. In both countries, high energy-dense foods were lower in energy costs than lower energy-dense foods. Conclusions: The influence of food prices and availability on consumption should be further explored, including the impact of country differences.

495preparations of standardized potency, such as those reviewed in this paper, might well develop. In the absence of such a trend there is still much scope for standardized fungal enzyme preparations in the mill and bakery either as correctives or as a means of improving dough behaviour and loaf quality.The rate of absorption of oxygen by moist palm kernels which had previously fermented under anaerobic conditions has been studied. No evidence was found of the formation of reactive fermentation products able to absorb oxygen rapidly and heat the kernels, thus leading to spontaneous ignition. I t is concluded that the spontaneous ignition of palm kernels in jute bags is less likely than was originally believed, and that the observed outbreaks of fire in these materials may have been due to other causes.

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