#Instaworthy, or not?
Led by Instagram, the rise in food photography is another consumer-led trend that manufacturers should be striving to understand.
There has been a “phenomenal” rise in consumer-generated food photography, says Alice Bexon, purchasing manager at Beacon. Diners are displaying a strong desire to get that perfect picture for social media, and restaurants in particular are reacting to this, Bexon claims.
“It is more important than ever before to make food visually appealing to attract snap-happy customers, and to create an advantage over competitors for those social posts and reviews,” she explains.
“Beacon’s supplier, Classic Fresh Foods believes a pleasing aesthetic can be created by incorporating colourful vegetables or edible flowers to dishes, with popular varieties including borage, apple blossom and chive flowers.”
The ‘Instagrammable’ look of food is also helping to drive growth in bakery, suggests Jacqui Passmore, UK and Ireland marketing manager at Dawn Foods. “In today’s always plugged-in culture, technology plays a major role in spreading food love and this is only set to grow bigger in 2019 and beyond,” she says.
“Manufacturers are upping their game to offer goodies that not only taste good but offer the ‘wow’ factor in design as well – a birthday cake loaded with brownies, donuts and cupcakes or a sweet baked sushi roll, for example.
“Love it or loathe it, social media is here to stay in today’s food world.”
