FOOD

Meatpacker Probe Finds No Price-Fixing: An investigation of cattle purchases by the nation’s top four meatpackers last year found no evidence of price-fixing or that their control of the slaughter market depressed prices, the Agriculture Department said. The investigation, which focused on Kansas, concluded that market forces caused prices to fall sharply last spring. A 10-year low in cattle prices led ranchers to blame the meatpackers, which buy and slaughter more than 80% of all cattle. Investigators looked at 15,000 transactions covering more than 2 million head of cattle.