Mower County officials testing Hormel employees and residents for tuberculosis say all results so far have come back negative. The investigation comes after a worker at the Austin, Minn. plant was diagnosed with the disease last week. Tuberculosis is a threat to people, but does not affect food safety.

Strong sales of Spam and Jennie-O products helped the Austin-based meat producer meet Wall Street expectations. Hormel's third quarter earnings rose to $111.2 million, or 41 cents per share, in the third quarter ended on July 29 compared to $98.5 million, or 36 cents per share, a year earlier.

The Austin-based company says the agreement gives the workers a wage increase of $1.50 per hour, plus improvements in their pensions and medical insurance plans.

The Austin-based company reports earnings for refrigerated foods were down 44 percent in the first quarter. Hormel says leaner profit margins for pork were a big ingredient in that. CEO and President Jeff Ettinger expects slowly improving results this year.

Jody Feragen is nominated for the CFO magazine Women in Finance Awards. She was named vice president and chief financial officer for the Austin-based food producer in 2007. The awards will be presented May 15.

Chairman, President and CEO of Hormel Foods Corporation, Jeffrey Ettinger, was among company leaders to ring The Closing Bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday to mark the 75th anniversary of the Spam brand. The Temptations will headline a birthday bash in Austin on July 28th.

Austin-based Hormel gave out $16.5 million in profit sharing to its employees. The checks amounted to about two weeks of regular pay. The bonus checks were announced a day after Hormel released its fourth-quarter and annual earnings report.

The Austin-based food maker says strong demand for its Jennie-O products and Spam helped boost sales in the quarter that ended in April.