Dive Brief:

• General Mills reported earnings of $550 million, or 84 cents a share, in the second fiscal quarter, a slight drop from the 86 cents a share from a year earlier. Analysts had expected earnings of 88 cents a share.
• Revenue for the quarter was flat at $4.88 billion. Wall Street analysts had forecast revenue of $4.95 billion. Sales from retail fell 1%.
• The food-manufacturing giant, which controls dozens of brands such as Cheerios, Progresso Soups and Pillsbury, cited rising costs for ingredients for the drop in earnings.

Dive Insight:

General Mills has had quite a year. Shares in the company have soared more than 25%, yet with sales of cold cereals falling, and with growing concerns among consumers about the health and safety of processed foods and GMO crops, General Mills has much to fear from the future. For that reason alone, it's a bit of a surprise that the company would not lower its profit forecast for next year. But General Mills said this morning it was sticking to its predictions of  $2.87-$2.90 a share in profit, excluding special items, for fiscal 2014.