General Mills did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. The Massachusetts-based natural snack foods company makes tortilla chips and sweet potato chips.

General Mills is coming under fire by nearly 20 children’s advocacy, health and public interest groups for violating a federal law to protect children's privacy, the New York Times reports. The coalition claims five well-known companies, including the Golden Valley-based cereal maker, are encouraging kids, who play games or use other features on their websites, to provide email addresses of their friends without seeking parental consent.

The food giant is lowering its earnings expectations. An analyst with Bloomberg says food companies are seeing year-over-year cost increases at the same time that shoppers continue to be frugal.

Golden Valley-based General Mills will start shipping more than three dozen new yogurt products next month as it tries to revitalize its U.S. yogurt business. Some of the new items include a 100-calorie Yoplait Greek yogurt and Yoplait Fruplait.

Several companies gathered to swap power-saving tips at 3M's energy-efficiency summit on Monday. The Maplewood-based company touted its plan to change light bulbs across 35 million square feet of factory space, the Star Tribune reports.