Food, glorious food!
From viral trends and mukbangs to celeb recipes and ‘girl dinner’, people go bananas for food related videos on TikTok.
According to the social media platform there are a whopping 1 billion videos associated with food on the app, so it makes sense that our TikTok ‘for you page’ could influence our food choices.
An April report from MyFitnessPal and Dublin University suggested that 57% of Gen-Z and Millennial TikTok users are influenced by or regularly adopt nutrition trends from the platform.
How does food go viral?
Food trends and recipes can go viral in various ways, however many are accelerated by food influencers online who’ve amassed a huge following. By creating their own recipes, trying out others food creations or by reviewing their favourite food products or places, they can soon generate lots of positive reactions through their core following.
It’s not uncommon for videos about food and drink to use clickbait-style phrases in their captions such as "The BEST Spaghetti Ever Recipe!" or “you NEED to try this”. Clickbait captions are used to grab your attention and create a sense of intrigue. They entice you to watch the content and can lead to higher viewing figures for the user.
Once a video begins to receive a large amount of views, likes, comments and shares, TikTok's algorithm pushes this video out to more user’s FYP, especially if you’ve previously engaged in similar content.
2024 food trends
Whether it’s due to FOMO or a pure interest in trying new things, social media food and recipe trends can have a big influence on what we eat. Here are 3 TikTok food trends that are popular in 2024.
- Dubai Chocolate – Dubbed ‘Dubai Chocolate’, this pistachio and knafeh filled bar hailed from a chocolatier in the UAE. The pistachio chocolate bar went viral following an asmr review from food influencer Maria Vehera. There are now more than 144,000 posts on TikTok with the hashtag #dubaichocolate with many creating their own homemade versions or making comparisons to a popular alternative from M&S.
- Cottage Cheese – This high-protein champion is the unexpected TikTok trend that keeps on giving. Recipe videos featuring cottage cheese first gained mass popularity in 2023, with the platform now boasting over 109 million cottage cheese related posts. Scotland based, Graham’s Family Dairy, saw a 40% rise in cottage sales in 1 year, thanks in part to the viral trend. From cottage cheese ice cream to flat breads and smoothies, it seems the recipes are endless. Click here for some cottage cheese recipes.
- Cucumber Salad – The Asian-inspired cucumber salad is the must-eat summer salad of 2024, with a huge 3.69 million searches for ‘cucumber salad' over a 7 day period on TikTok. The most popular recipe for this healthy snack includes marinating cucumber slices in soy sauce, rice vinegar, chilli and sesame seeds. This trend can be traced back to cucumber advocate and influencer Logan who has 4.2 million followers and primarily makes recipes featuring the good old cuke.
Celebrity and influencer impact
Content creators, influencers and celebs can also impact our food/drink choices, as they partner with brands to promote certain products or even use their platform to launch and promote their own brands.
Charli D’Amelio’s Dunkin’ partnership
Influencer Charli D’Amelio has 155.5 million followers on TikTok, making her one of the most followed users worldwide. She was always a fan of Dunkin’ (Donuts) with many of her early videos beginning with a sip of their iced coffee. In 2020 her official partnership with Dunkin’ began, which included the brand creating a new iced coffee drink called ‘The Charli’. According to reports, the day the drink launched, Dunkin’ saw a 57% rise in app downloads and a 20% increase in the sales of cold brew.
KSI and Logan Paul’s viral Prime Hydration
Social media influencers, Logan Paul and KSI joined forces to launch Prime Hydration in January 2022 and by November 2023 had sold 1 billion bottles. Using their collective social media following, along with online stunts and partnerships with brands such as Arsenal, the content creators created a huge hype.
The launch of the brand also resulted in a secondary social media storm, with their target audience hunting down the drink, queuing outside shops and reselling it for a profit online. The DrinkPrime TikTok account now boasts over 1 billion (1,000,000,000) views and 81 million likes, featuring videos and stunts that in turn influenced thousands of people’s drink of choice worldwide.
TikTok food tourism
According to a survey carried out in the US, 53% of TikTok users have visited or ordered food from a restaurant after seeing a TikTok video about it. Much like positive search engine reviews, popular short form videos of food vendors, mukbangs, picture-perfect dishes, or food ratings can have a huge impact on where we choose to eat out.
From viral spud vans with 70 million likes on TikTok, to orders for a Matilda-inspired ‘Bruce’ chocolate cake selling out in 2 minutes and people in Ilford queueing down the street for mango ice cream, viral food videos on TikTok can influence demand and hype in the real world.
The final bite
- Look out for posts that are paid partnerships or ads, as celebs and influencers often get paid to promote the products that feature in these videos.
- Be aware of clickbait captions and headings, as these are usually used to draw you in and increase views.
- Remember that social media algorithms work to deliver you posts that are similar to content you’ve positively engaged with previously. So a trend that might seem popular, may just be the result of your own social media echo chamber.
- Use trusted sources for health and nutritional information, such as the NHS.
- Not all food trends are healthy or good for your body, so make sure you consider the possible outcomes before you become invested.
This article was updated in December
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