CHICAGO, December 17, 2025 — Here’s a look at the people (and one non-human) who continually made headlines for the food-away-from-home industry in 2025.
Donald Trump
If Donald Trump’s inclusion on a list of the year’s top newsmakers is a surprise, welcome back to civilization. Being frozen in a glacier and then rethawed must have been quite the experience.
The former hotelier may be the most business-friendly president the country has ever had. But there seems to be a footnote to the assertion: “Food-away-from-home business excepted.”
Trump’s tariffs have been an anvil dangling over the industry’s head. Until the White House was convinced in mid-November to exempt most foods and beverages from the import duties, the business faced a possible shortage of such essentials as coffee, cocoa, wines, beer, and bananas.
The threat has greatly diminished, but lingering uncertainty has further shaken the public’s confidence that they can dine out as much as they once did without a post-dessert stop at the poorhouse. Everyday affordability could be the major victim of the year for the food-away-from-home business.
The industry has been further strained by the White House’s aggressive immigration-enforcement policies. Foodservice facilities are seeing their already-limited labor pool further retract as foreign workers stay home to avoid being apprehended by federal immigration agents. Many have been loath to dine out for the same reason.
On the positive side, the President provided several tax breaks to a swath of the industry workforce and quashed several regulatory issues that had long nettled management, including a problematic redefinition of relations between franchisor and franchisee. He also gave his approval to several sensible tax changes the industry has been seeking for years.
AI
The technology was the talk of the industry during 2025, though not the quantum leap forward proponents have promised. At least not yet.
The industry was effusive in its projections of what a thinking machine could do, but those capabilities were seldom put to a test. With a few head-turning exceptions, the most noticeable application of AI remained voice recognition, though inroads were clearly made in labor scheduling and procurement as well.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Nothing less than a revolution in the way America tends to its health was promised by the scion of the iconic political family. With the FAFH industry capturing more than half the food dollars spent in the U.S., foodservice executives are understandably concerned about what this sea change will mean for them.
So far, the impact on a federal level has been minimal. New dietary guidelines have yet to be issued. Ditto for a national definition of “ultra-processed foods,” a big reason for food-away-from-home's everyday affordability. Nailing the term will likely be a first step in regulating UPFs, which is likely to become one of the most-used acronyms of 2026. Right up there, in fact, with MAHA (that’s Make America Healthy Again, in case you, too, were chilling in a glacier.)
The impact of MAHA was far more evident at the state level. California pulled together its own definition of UPFs and kicked off a 10-year plan to ban them from school lunchrooms. Louisiana passed a requirement that places notify patrons if seed oils are used in the kitchen. Several jurisdictions have set a sunset date for artificial food dyes, while Kennedy and his MAHA cohorts convinced major food manufacturers to drop the additives voluntarily.
Uncle Herschel
Many didn’t even know the character existed. Then Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores gave the southern caricature his walking papers, dropping him from the family-dining chain’s logo to make the emblem easier to read. Herschel got the heave-ho, along with the cracker barrel he was leaning upon.
The logo change was received about as warmly as might an announcement that Santa Claus had a sleigh crash. Patrons turned on Cracker Barrel’s management, accusing it of removing the symbols of redneck culture just to be “woke.” Even President Trump got involved, airing his opinion that the old logo should be reinstated.
The controversy worsened an already vexing business slowdown for Cracker Barrel. Hardcore fans told CEO Julie Masino in no uncertain terms that they didn’t want the brand modernized, though research suggested lapsed patrons were visiting less often precisely because the brand felt antiquated. In its last quarterly earnings report, Cracker Barrel posted a 4.7% decline in comparable restaurant sales on a 7.3% decline in traffic. The home office has announced it will lay off staff to preserve margins.