The Americas
Vegan burgers now represent just 1% of the US market
Plant-based burger sales have taken a substantial fall in the US in the last year, according to the latest figures on the sector. Sales of refrigerated plant-based burger products have dropped 17% in 2025, following an equally precipitous 2024, in which sales dropped 7%.
In 2024, Americans purchased 75m fewer units of plant-based meat than they did in 2022, despite the best efforts of previously much-lauded brands such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meats, The Guardian reports. “Burgers, sausages and chicken made from soy, peas and beans… languish at just 1% of the total meat market in the US,” says its report. The drop in sales is being blamed to a large degree on a “surging pro-meat trend” embraced by the Trump administration.
Hilton surpasses 200 hotels in Canada
Hotel giant Hilton’s Canadian footprint has almost doubled during the past decade with more than 200 hotels now open. The brand has announced that more than 100 properties are also in development as it seeks to drive “strategic growth across focused‑service, extended‑stay, and lifestyle brands.”
Recent openings include Hôtel Vallea Bromont, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, Home2 Suites by Hilton Woodstock ON and Spark by Hilton Toronto Mississauga, reflecting the hospitality company’s successful multi-brand growth strategy. “With a primary focus on expanding its focused service, extended stay, and lifestyle brand portfolios, Hilton continues to broaden its footprint while delivering signature hospitality, warmth, and innovation in destinations ranging from iconic city centers to emerging leisure and event hubs nationwide,” the company said in a recent statement.
Asia Pacific
Tinkling teenagers pay the price in China
A pair of teenagers in China who recorded themselves urinating into a restaurant hotpot broth and posted the footage on social media have been ordered to apologize – alongside their parents – and pay more than $300,000 in damages to the operator by a Chinese court. Chinese state media reported that the 17-year-olds took turns to stand on a table and urinate into the pot in a private dining room of a Haidilao chain restaurant in the city of Shanghai. Haidilao has since assured customers that all utensils at the location were subsequently “destroyed and replaced. It also refunded more than 4,000 affected dine-in orders and gave each customer extra compensation worth 10 times their original payment.”
InterContinental Singapore in Bugis will rebrand under new operator in 2026
The management of the InterContinental Singapore in Bugis by the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) will end on Dec 31 2025. The hotel will then rebrand in 2026 under a new operator, according to industry reports. The identity of the new operator has not yet been released to the media by the hotel’s owner, Frasers Hospitality.
“We have a long-standing and fruitful relationship with Frasers Hospitality Trust and would like to thank the team for their partnership on InterContinental Singapore,” said IHG in a statement this week.
Europe, Middle East, Asia
Nigerian chef breaks Guiness World Record for biggest jollof rice dish
Chef Hilda Baci last week broke the world record for cooking the largest ever pot of jollof rice in Lagos, Nigeria. Guinness World Records confirmed the achievement on its social media channels, noting that Baci’s jollof dish weighed 8,780kg. After nine straight hours of cooking, Baci’s record attempt was almost in vain when the vast pot she used to cook the dish broke as it was being raised onto the crane to be weighed, but the record stood when it was ruled that none of the rice had been spilled.
UK food and drink inflation could rise “to 5.7% by end of year“
Food and drink inflation in the UK may surge to 5.7% by the end of the year, according to the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) had previously forecast inflation to reach 4.8% in December, but has upped its prediction due to cost pressures on manufacturers.
The FDF, whose members account for one quarter of all food and drink sold in the United Kingdom, has said that current prices were “steeper than anything in recent decades.” It concluded that between January 2020 and July 2025, food and non-alcoholic drink prices increased by 37%, compared with 28% for overall prices. Some products have seen particularly steep increases with sugar soaring by 56%, whole milk by 46%, and cheese by 31%, according to analysis on the Sky News Money TV channel.
Michael Jones
