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Is Ordering Excess Food Justifiable If You're a Food Influencer?
Influencers vie for clicks and shares but may be wasting food. The Lempert Report: One new report says social media influencers order excess food for the sake of the perfect Instagram shot but much of the featured food goes to waste.
Phil Lempert
October 24, 2019
2 Min Read
The Lempert Report: One new report says social media influencers order excess food for the sake of the perfect Instagram shot but much of the featured food goes to waste.Photograph: YouTube
This is a great column by Rachel Hosie in the Insider, and one that every food retailer, restaurant and social media influencer needs to read and learn from.
She writes that the majority of influencers aren't helping solve the food waste problem. She lists the factors:
When meals are #gifted, food Instagrammers can order as much as they want in a restaurant, and most feel that having more dishes makes for a better photo.
Some order far more than they'll eat for the sake of the perfect Instagram shot and send lots of leftovers back to the kitchen, most of which get thrown away.
Although some take a more responsible approach and only order what they'll eat, others believe it's their duty as a new generation of restaurant critics to sample an array of dishes.
Some restaurants welcome influencers who do this, as their reach can offer a form of incredibly powerful promotion for them.
Still, it's a problem all parties involved need to help manage.
Our social media feeds, she says, are inundated with lavish abundance—whether it's piled-high freak shakes or flat lays of excessive spreads, more is more when it comes to food photos on Instagram.
A number of staff members at popular London restaurants confirmed to Insider that they do see influencers ordering extra food for the sake of their photos.
While it may seem picky or trivial to point out that influencers are wasting food, the point is that now there are thousands upon thousands of them and they influence millions and millions of people with their photos so showing a table with tons of food is going to send a message to their followers that more is better, and its not.
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