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The biggest ever mistakes made by food brands: Colgate meals to New Coke

Major food fails
26. KFC's Oprah offer
25. Whole Foods' Chantilly cake catastrophe
24. Colgate frozen meals
23. Coco Pops to Choco Krispies
22. Red Bull Cola
21. Long John Silver’s Big Catch
20. Kellogg's OJ's
19. Shake Shack's crinkle-less fries
18. Arnott's Pizza Shapes' new seasoning
17. Iceland's Wacky Veg
16. Orbitz
15. Yorkie's 'not for girls' campaign
15. Yorkie's 'not for girls' campaign
14. Tropicana's redesign
13. Burger King's Satisfries
12. Messing with Milo
11. Heinz Salad Cream renamed
11. Heinz Salad Cream renamed
10. Crystal Pepsi
10. Crystal Pepsi
9. McDonald's Szechuan sauce
9. McDonald's Szechuan sauce
8. Toblerone's twin troubles
8. Toblerone's twin troubles
7. Heinz EZ Squirt Ketchup
7. Heinz EZ Squirt Ketchup
6. Burger King's Halloween Whopper
5. New Coke
4. WOW Chips
4. WOW Chips
3. McDonald's Arch Deluxe
3. McDonald's Arch Deluxe
2. KFC runs out of... chicken
1. McDonald’s 1984 Olympics promotion
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Nestlé/pikachuonetwo/YouTube

Major food fails

Nobody's perfect, and we all make mistakes... But these missteps by major food brands were on another level. The fallout was huge, leaving the brands with disgruntled customers and – in some cases – plummeting sales. Whether messing around with popular recipes, introducing bizarre new products or making baffling marketing decisions, these are the biggest ever mistakes made by food brands.

Click or scroll through our gallery to count down some of the worst errors made by food brands – how many do you remember?

We've based our ranking on the perceived damage done to each brand at the time and beyond, and on the opinions of our well-travelled (and well-fed) team. The list is unavoidably subjective.​ 

All dollar amounts are USD, unless otherwise stated.

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Ben Halls

23 December 2024

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