First it broke the news that retailers were selling farmed fish as wild and this week The Times revealed more potential fraud in the food and drink industry - this time concerning potatoes. According to the paper, at least two retailers are under investigation for selling foreign imports as British new potatoes, the spuds in question being Israeli and Cypriot varieties.

The Telegraph picked up on the fact that Tesco was sending CDs and DVDs on a 1,400-mile round journey to exploit a tax loophole that allows customers to avoid paying VAT. The paper said that, at the same time the retailer was pledging to develop a carbon labelling scheme, it was shipping DVDs to Switzerland and back to save customers as little as £1.56.

The Daily Mirror sounded the death knell for cash this week, with a story that banks were preparing to launch swipe-and-go pay cards. Pay cards, similar to the Oyster cards used on the London Underground, would cut shop queues significantly by eliminating the need to enter a PIN number or wait for change, the paper said.

A story in The Independent last week linked milk consumption with the onset of spots. It cited a Harvard School of Public Health study of 47,000 women that found a link between women who had acne and those who had drunk a lot of milk. Despite its positive role as an essential bone-building nutrient, milk has been anecdotally linked to acne for almost a century, according to the paper.

Tesco has sent out the clearest signal yet that it wants to buy Australian retail chain Coles Group, according to a story in the Daily Mail at the weekend. Tesco is understood to have drafted in bankers at Merrill Lynch to advise on a possible £8bn bid for Australia's second largest retailer, which has more than 2,900 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand.