World’s Most Ethical Food & Beverage Companies | Sustainable Food Brands

World’s Most Ethical Food & Beverage Companies 2025: Leading the Way in Sustainable and Responsible Food Practices

Ethisphere, a global authority in advancing ethical business standards, has opened applications for the 2025 World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition. Now in its 19th year, this prestigious distinction honors organizations that exhibit exceptional performance in ethics, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG).

For the food and beverage industry, this recognition underscores the importance of responsible food production, ethical sourcing, and strong ESG alignment. Companies on this list represent the best of sustainable food brands, prioritizing not just profits but purpose and people. According to Erica Salmon Byrne, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Chair at Ethisphere, “We are delighted to celebrate the good that companies can do through robust programs focused on business integrity.”

Key Criteria for Selection

The Ethics Quotient (EQ) assessment evaluates companies across five categories:

Governance & compliance
Ethical sourcing & supply chain
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Culture of ethics
Environmental & social impact

The Application Process

The journey toward becoming one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies begins with a comprehensive evaluation across five weighted pillars: governance; third-party management; ethics and compliance program; culture of ethics; and environmental and social impact. These are especially critical in the food and beverage sector, where sustainable food supply chains and transparency are under increasing scrutiny.

The Ethics Quotient (EQ)

At the heart of the evaluation is Ethisphere’s proprietary rating system, Ethics Quotient® (EQ) — a standardized framework with more than 250 data points assessing everything from ESG programs to culture and compliance. This tool helps ethical food brands benchmark their efforts against global best practices.

Ethics and Performance

Data from Ethisphere’s 2023 Ethics Index reveals that publicly traded honorees outperform peers by 13.6 percentage points over five years — a testament to the market value of ethics. In the food industry, this translates into stronger consumer trust and resilience, especially as demand rises for eco-friendly food companies.

Methodology and Scoring

Grounded in Ethisphere’s proprietary Ethics Quotient®, the World’s Most Ethical Companies assessment process includes more than 200 questions on culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance activities, governance, diversity, and initiatives that support a strong value chain. The process serves as an operating framework to capture and codify the leading practices of organizations across industries and around the globe.

Ethisphere’s selection process evaluates applicants in five categories — ethics and compliance program, culture of ethics, corporate citizenship and responsibility, governance, and leadership and reputation. To determine which companies make the final list, applicants receive an Ethics Quotient (EQ) score relative to their peers (companies of similar structure, size, and operating environment).

To view the complete list of this year’s honorees, please visit the World’s Most Ethical Companies website at https://worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees.

New for 2025

For the 2025 season, the EQ Questionnaire has been significantly revised with new questions and documentation requests to address emerging regulatory topics, clarify lines of responsibility, better understand how organizations approach risk assessment and management, solicit more detailed information about process and practice implementation, and improve and add requests for documentation. Applying organizations will have more opportunity to explain how they uniquely approach the challenges of today’s business operating environment and demonstrate their leadership in doing business ethically.

10 Most Ethical Food and Beverage Companies:

ADM

Headquarters: United States | Employees: 42,000

The pet and human nutrition company, fully named Archer Daniels Midland, is headquartered in Chicago, IL. This is the sixth time the company has been on the World’s Most Ethical Companies list. For a staggering 120 years, the company has produced ingredients for livestock, pets, and people.

Charoen Pokphand Group

Headquarters: Thailand | Employees: 360,000

Making the list five times now, Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group (C.P. Group) has a diverse company with eight business lines, not just food-related: Agro-Industry & Food, Retail & Distribution, Pharmaceutical, and more. For the Agro & Food business, the company manufactures pet food, livestock feed ingredients, meat products, processed foods, and plant-based foods. The company was founded in 1921 as a seed store that supported Thai farmers.

CHS Inc.

Headquarters: Minnesota, USA | Employees: Over 10,000

This is the first year that CHS has been on the World’s Most Ethical Companies list. CHS is a global agribusiness cooperative owned by farmers and member cooperatives across the US, with headquarters in Inver Grove Heights, MN. The company also has an energy business line. In its agriculture business, CHS operates in more than 450 communities in 16 states, sourcing critical crop-producing inputs and livestock feed. They produce grains for animal nutrition products, oilseed products, and more.

Grupo Bimbo

Headquarters: Mexico | Employees: 138,000

Based in Mexico, Grupo Bimbo is on the Most Ethical Companies list for the ninth time. The 80-year- old company produces snacks such as Thomas Bagels, Oroweat bread, Bimbo, Takis, and more.

“This recognition reaffirms Grupo Bimbo’s commitment to ethics, integrity, and transparency, as well as our global public commitments. It motivates us to continue strengthening our ethical culture and responsibly monitoring our company’s performance. Acting ethically goes beyond simply following rules, it is about having the conviction to do and say the right thing,” said Ignacio Stepancic, Global Compliance director, Grupo Bimbo.

Ingredion Incorporated

Headquarters: United States | Employees: 12,000

As an 11-time honoree, leading global ingredients solution company Ingredion creates sweeteners, starches, nutrition ingredients and biomaterials. This includes turning grains, fruits, vegetables and other plant materials into food products; and lotions & creams silky; and plastics biodegradable and tissues softer. Entenmann’s products. The company is based in Westchester, IL.

Kellanova

Headquarters: Chicago USA | Employees: 33,000

Based in Chicago, IL, Kellanova (formerly The Kellogg Co.) Kellogg Co. was recognized 16 times prior to the spin-off in 2023. This is the first year as Kellanova that the company has been honored. Popular Kellanova products include Eggo waffles, Cheez-It, Pop-Tarts, Special K, and RX bar.

“At Kellanova, we believe that trust is built through transparency, integrity, and a deep commitment to doing what’s right. Every day, we work to create better days and a place at the table for everyone through our trusted food brands. We are proud that Ethisphere recognizes our efforts, and even prouder to earn the trust of consumers across the world,” said Steve Cahillane, Kellanova chairman, president, and CEO.

PepsiCo, Inc.

Headquarters: United States | Employees: 315,000

The beverage and snacks giant has been on the list for 19 years now. Everyone is aware of the famous brands including Quaker Oats, Gatorade, Lay’s, Sabra, Bubly, and more. PepsiCo is based in Purchase, NY.

Sodexo Group

Headquarters: France | Employees: 423,000

The France-based food service company has locations in the US and provides sustainable food services and facilities management solutions to its customers. Its major food brands include Modern Living, Kitchen Works, The Good Eating Co., Eat, and Nourish. This is the second time Sodexo has received this honor.

The Hershey Company

Headquarters: United States | Employees: 19,270

Hershey has graced this list for four times. The familiar sweet maker creates some of the favorite candy in the US and beyond, as well as salty snacks — Hershey Kisses, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, M&Ms, Skinny Pop, Twizzlers, and Dot’s Pretzels just to name a few. Of course, the company is based in Hershey, PA, and has been around for 131 years.

The J.M. Smucker Co.

Headquarters: Ohio, USA | Employees: Over 8,000

Smucker has been a beloved brand for decades in the US. This is the second time the company has been on this list. Brands include Smucker’s, Jif, Uncrustables, Pup-Peroni, Milk Bone, Twinkies, and more. The business is in its fifth generation of family ownership and calls Orrville, OH, its home.

About Ethisphere

Ethisphere is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust, and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honours superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition program provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA), and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with Ethisphere Magazine.

Ethisphere also helps to advance business performance through data-driven assessments, guidance, and benchmarking against its unparalleled data: the Culture Quotient dataset focused on ethical culture and featuring the responses of 2+ million employees around the world; and the Ethics Quotient dataset, featuring 200+ data points highlighting the ethics, compliance, social, and governance practices of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. For more information, visit https://ethisphere.com.