UK cheese giant Dairy Crest is selling its private label cheese making arm to First Milk, a farmer-owned Scottish dairy business which produces over two billion liters of milk a year. First Milk is paying 61.9 million pounds ($117 million) in cash for the business. Dairy Crest will focus on its name brand products like Cathedral City Cheddar.

NIZO Food Research, the Netherlands, is exploring the possibility to use specific aroma molecules as triggers for inducing satiety. In addition to determining the type of aroma, NIZO investigates whether the route is important by which the aroma is delivered to the olfactory epithelium in the nose.

Group Danone is acquiring the Rodych dairy in Ukraine. The acquisition allows Danone to strengthen its position in the Ukrainian industry by adding traditional products, such as kefir and smetana, the company says.

The Ukrainian government is asking its Russian counterparts to waive the ban on Ukraine’s meat and dairy products’ imports to Russia. The parties were to meet last month. Russia decided to halt livestock supplies in January with the discovery of a host of sanitary legislation violations.

Kraft Foods has acquired United Biscuits’ Iberian operations, as well as the recovery of the rights to key Nabisco trademarks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Germany’s Nordmilch continues to ramp up its export business. In 2005, sales of products to other EU countries and beyond accounted for 31.3% of the company’s total revenue.

Swiss dairy Leader Emmi is in acquisition mode in Italy, recently adding Molkerei Trentinalattre to its Italian portfolio.