FoodBev (Un) Wrapped: What you loved reading in 2025

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Leah Smith

23 December 2025

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FoodBev (Un) Wrapped: What you loved reading in 2025

From blockbuster mergers and major brand shake-ups to viral product launches and geopolitical disruption, 2025 delivered no shortage of talking points for the food and beverage industry. As the year draws to a close, we round up the FoodBev stories that captured the most attention from our readers.

There have been some big stories in the world of food and beverage this year – from Unilever finalising the demerger of its ice cream business to the closure of factories and the merging of high-profile companies, like the Kellanova/Mars merger and the Greencore/Bakkavor takeover, both of which recently received approval from the EU.

Some of our most-read articles of the year featured popular producers and brands, including Red Bull and PepsiCo, and covered everything from new product launches to political turmoil on the world’s stage. To mark the closure of the year, here are the stories that had you clicking during 2025.

Red Bull’s new launches

It’s never a dull day in the energy drink sector, and Red Bull kept us busy with its continuously expanding portfolio. In February, the company announced the launch of its Summer Edition White Peach energy drink, which joined a roster of successful previous Summer Editions.

This latest flavour combines notes of white peach with a hint of citrus peel, offering a refreshing option for those wanting something with a boost of energy on a warm summer’s day.

Later in the year, the brand also brought us a new sugar-free Lilac Edition drink. The Red Bull Sugarfree Lilac Edition offered flavours of grapefruit and blossom following a rigorous testing and research process. The Sugarfree Lilac Edition made its way onto shelves in June.

Other recent beverage launches that made it into our top ten this year were CCEP’s launch of a Dr Pepper Zero Sugar Cherry Crush variant, which was released in time for Valentine’s Day. The new flavour aimed to capitalise on the growing demand for flavoured carbonated beverages and featured roses on the packaging – perfect for appearing during the month of love.

President Trump and his ever changing tariff policy

US President Donald Trump made 'tariff' a real buzzword in 2025, imposing and suspending them throughout the year. The UK (where we are based) got off fairly lightly, but the same couldn’t be said for countries like Brazil.

Our story on further changes to the Canadian and Mexican tariffs was the second most-read story on FoodBev this year. You can read the full story and keep up with all the tariff news here.

PepsiCo dominating FoodBev’s headlines

PepsiCo featured the most heavily in our top ten stories of the year, firstly after making a splash over the Christmas season, not only with the launch of a new gingerbread-flavoured Pepsi Max variant, but also with Doritos Gingerbread, the brand’s first-ever limited edition festive flavour.

Doritos Gingerbread combined the brand’s signature crunch with the warming taste of gingerbread, further capitalising on the ongoing trend of combining sweet and savoury flavours, and joined a wider seasonal line-up of festive crisp flavours, including two new additions to the Walker’s line-up.

As well as some incredible food and beverage news stories, 2025 also saw the end of an era with the finale of Stranger Things, a nostalgic Netflix show about alternative worlds and mind-reading monsters. Pepsi-Co owned Doritos was one of the many brands that collaborated with Stranger Things in the lead up to the finale, with its limited edition Black Garlic Dip, which also made our top ten stories of the year.

It wasn’t all monsters and gingerbread for PepsiCo, however. Earlier in the year, its Frito-Lay brand was fined $36 million for breaching antitrust regulations in Turkey. The amount, approximately 1.3 billion Turkish Lira, was imposed after Turkey’s Competition Authority found it had engaged in anti-competitive practices designed to restrict rival brands’ access to the market.

The investigation focused on whether Frito-Lay, which owns popular snack brands, such as Doritos, Ruffles, Lay’s and Cheetos, had violated the law by preventing the sales of its competitors and attempting to exclude them from the packaged chip sector. Read more about the decision here.

With retirements, mergers and in some places, terminations, there have been some big changes to the leadership teams of the sector’s best-known companies over the year, including at PepsiCo. The news of the company announcing a major reshuffle of its leadership to streamline global operations, which featured six promotions and three high-profile departures, came in at number 10 of our most-read news stories of the year. Refresh yourself and find out more here.

Continuing the trend of indulgent better-for-you products

Both indulgence and better-for-you have been top trends this year, so it was only a matter of time before something featuring both those things ended up on our list. Lindt managed to embody both with their Excellence Fusion range of bars, which promised to redefine the chocolate experience by combining the boldness of dark chocolate with the creaminess of milk or white chocolate.

Following a growing consumer base seeking indulgence, research found that while dark chocolate continued to gain popularity, thanks to its perceived health connotations, many consumers found the intense flavour off-putting, allowing for innovation around making it more palatable.

Looking back on past trends

While we’re on the subject of trends, the fifth most read story on FoodBev this year was from our very own chairman, Richard Hall, as he revisited a previous review of the top 15 soft drinks brands a decade later.

Richard’s update looked at what had changed in the beverage industry over the past ten years, comparing the top brands of 2015 with those of 2025, finding that brands like Tropicana, Lipton, Minute Maid and Mountain Dew had all dropped out of the top 15! Find out more here.