Were Food Companies able to hedge the Costs of Commodities?

Soaring commodity costs have taken a major bite out of food companies' profits for more than a year, but it's almost impossible to find out whether, like airlines and fuel, they have been able to hedge those cost.

In fact, shareholders looking for information about how successful some of their favorite food-companies have been in managing these rising costs with hedging strategies will find little to satisfy them.

Hedging involves making an investment to reduce or cancel the risk of price increases. Airlines that hedged their fuel costs, say, three years ago, are sitting pretty right now. Food companies that hedged on a commodity that has run up might also find themselves in good shape.

But, unlike airlines, which give fairly precise details about how well they have covered their future costs for jet fuel, food companies generally do not make specific comments about hedging they have done to cover costs of corn, wheat, oil or other commodities that have had steadily climbing costs.