Fresh Take: 2025’s Most Promising Food & Drink Changemakers

Did you, like me, feel like you blinked and all of a sudden the end of the year is fast-approaching? I’ve been hard at work to wrap up my few last features for the year that I’m really excited about. Keep an eye out!

In the meantime, one that came out this week is the 2025 30 Under 30 Food & Drink list. This was my eighth year working on this list, and I’d love for you to check out all the founding stories of everyone who made the cut this year, including influencer Meredith Hayden, Dose Daily’s Vasu Goyal and Stellar Snacks’ Gina Galvin. It’s quite the group!

Otherwise, I’ve been doing a lot to protect my sanity (and free time) this holiday season. I’m trying to wind down and take it slow. Now’s the time to start to rest. There’s more work awaiting us in January.

— Chloe Sorvino, Staff Writer

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The Feed

30 Under 30 Food & Drink 2025: These Entrepreneurs Will Shape The Future Of Food

This year’s list highlights up-and-coming superstars from the worlds of restaurants, packaged food, alcohol and recipe creation.

How Two College Roommates Built Multimillion-Dollar Snack Company Smackin’

Brian Waddick and Cole Schaefer started by seasoning sunflower seeds in their dorm and taste-testing them on their classmates. Inspired by positive campus feedback, the duo raised $60,000 from state grants and angel investors to build Smackin’. This year, revenue should top $20 million, up from $2 million last year, and their seeds are available at megaretailers like Walmart, Dick’s and 7-Eleven. Schaefer attributes the rapid growth in traditional retail to its more than 700,000 Gen Z social media followers. “We took our online success and brought it into stores,” Waddick says.

These Are The 25 Best New Restaurants Of 2024, According To Yelp Users

Experiential dining, Japanese cuisine, and casual atmospheres dominated 2024 restaurant trends among new restaurants.

Why Philly Whole Foods Market Employees Are Unionizing

Whole Foods Market employees in Philadelphia have announced their intention to unionize. With Amazon exerting more influence, more stores may soon follow.

An Innovative Mexican Corn Whisky From Yucatán Arrives In The U.S.

Made from ancient corn varieties grown by small scale farmers, Gran Maizal whisky recently launched in Texas, and is also available nationwide for online purchase.

Meet The Voice Of Beer In America

John Holl hosts three beer podcasts and produces three more, has written six books about beer, is the co-owner of All About Beer and writes for many publications.

Field Notes

I only just stopped eating turkey. What do you expect? I know the food waste stats all too well. For example, in the aftermath of Thanksgiving, according to ReFed, Americans waste around 300 million pounds of food. That’s a disaster. So I tried to do my part, and I can promise you no turkey was left behind. Here’s a photo of a Pinterest-esque rice bake of turkey, pineapple, green onions, garlic, red pepper, coconut milk and turkey waste stock. It was quite a hit with the family!

Thanks for reading the 127th edition of Forbes Fresh Take! Let me know what you think. Subscribe to Forbes Fresh Take here.

Chloe Sorvino leads coverage of food and agriculture as a staff writer on the enterprise team at Forbes. Her book, Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed and the Fight for the Future of Meat, published on December 6, 2022, with Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books. Her nearly nine years of reporting at Forbes has brought her to In-N-Out Burger’s secret test kitchen, drought-ridden farms in California’s Central Valley, burnt-out national forests logged by a timber billionaire, a century-old slaughterhouse in Omaha and even a chocolate croissant factory designed like a medieval castle in northern France.