10 Food Trends We Hope To Leave Behind In 2023

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest remained popular social media platforms for sharing food content in 2022 (via Sprout Social), but TikTok drove the trends. The most memorable culinary moments of the year, such as Cloud Bread, originated on the application. TikTok gained millions of new clips showcasing cooking, dining, and kitchen hacks. Although it may sound alarmingly influential, TikTok's food space — shared through "For You" pages, viral accounts, and the hashtag "FoodTok" — is not all bad. Per CNN, it may even be helping the app's mostly young audience of primarily Gen Z and millennial users learn about cooking. But sometimes, the videos that go viral aren't the best.

Such crazes are not only cringe to witness, but they can also negatively impact people who try them. Misinformation is a problem; ideas are advertised as hacks but can expose users to foodborne illnesses. Lack of information can be dangerous as well, through the leaving out of certain potentially harmful ingredients. Then, there are the expensive trends that cost so much money they are inaccessible to most people. Finally, there's the promotion of excessiveness in food trends which encourages people to eat enormous amounts of food to gain attention on social media.

Here are the food trends we hope to leave behind in 2023.

Usually, after eating part of an avocado, people put the leftover piece in an airtight container and refrigerate it. But even the best Tupperware can't stop your avocado from browning slightly soon after. By the end of its three- to four-day stay in the fridge, it's usually long gone. That's what the soaked avocado trick of 2022 meant to change.

This self-proclaimed "hack" is meant to help extend the shelf life of avocados. Last year, posts circulated advertising that by submerging whole or cut avocados in water, you could keep the produce fresh for longer and even prevent them from browning. One person who tried it said in a viral Facebook post that their whole avocados stay fresh for a month in the fridge using the hack, according to Today. On TikTok, other users showed the trick using cut pieces of avocado. But although social media posts appeared to showcase bright green avocados days after they should've turned brown, this trend turned out to be extremely dangerous.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration even issued a warning attempting to stop people from participating in the soaked avocados trend, per NJ.com. The reason why it's so dangerous is that the water could be speeding along the growth of bacteria like listeria or salmonella, which can create foodborne illnesses. This is a very strong reason why we hope no one brings back water-submerged avocado storage hacks like this in 2023.

Lemon coffee is another 2022 food trend we can leave in the past. The craze involved social media posts promoting putting lemon juice into your coffee as a way of speeding up weight loss. Per the Lancashire Telegraph, the food trend recommended squeezing lemon juice directly into black coffee, then drinking the beverage as is. TikTok videos claimed that this concoction helped users to shed belly fat faster than usual. But not only is the flavor combination of lemon juice and black coffee extremely bitter (and to us, unpleasant), but the hack also doesn't appear to be true.

Healthline is just one source debunking nearly all the proclaimed benefits of this trend. While lemons and coffee have their potential health-boosting properties individually, there aren't positives to drinking them together. Per Healthline, drinking lemon coffee will not help you to lose weight, relieve diarrhea, ease headaches, or improve your skin — things that online proponents previously claimed. On the other hand, this trend is not specifically dangerous. However, the acidity of these ingredients makes drinking lemon coffee on an empty stomach potentially triggering for those with acid reflux and heartburn (via Healthgrades). We are happy to say goodbye to lemon coffee in 2023.

When taking tequila shots, some people put a pinch of salt on the back of their hands. They lick the salt off immediately before taking the tequila shot to decrease its burn. Now imagine if someone did the same thing but with caviar. As detailed by The New York Times, that's the method of consuming "caviar bumps," one of 2022's most viral (and controversial) food trends. Despite the name's association with recreational drugs, there isn't any snorting being done here. But to some people, that doesn't make caviar bumps any more appealing.

Although caviar is celebrated for its rich, delicious, and unique flavor — this trend was not completely well received. Caviar's famously high price point seems to get ignored in videos promoting the caviar bumps. Of course, this seems to be intentional. In one caviar bump video, well-dressed individuals crowd over a white tablecloth, a dollop of caviar in each of their hands. Many of their wrists are decorated with flashy-looking watches. The flex that's happening in this video is not lost on anyone. The top comment (at the time of writing) says, "rich people things."

You can expect to pay around $60 for a 1-ounce container of caviar when ordering online. Per Black Diamond Caviar, that's approximately 4 to 5 teaspoons. Even if you split a low-priced caviar between friends, you'll still pay more than most appetizers for one bite of food. For the boastful and exclusive tone of this trend, we say stop with the caviar bump videos.

Raw meat is another food that continued to dominate the internet in 2022. Viral videos on TikTok and Instagram Reels showcased internet users (usually muscular men) biting into various uncooked pieces of animal protein. One such video, posted in March 2022, pictured fitness influencer Weam Breiche chomping on a raw cow brain (via Insider). It was viewed over 10 million times before being removed from TikTok. Other videos promoted eating raw steak, bone marrow, cow heart, or other types of uncooked beef.

Although at first alarming, the trend has been promoted by rumors that claim cooking or freezing meat destroys most of its nutrients. These claims are often shared by bodybuilders as a fitness-boosting hack. But as you may have suspected, eating raw meat can be dangerous to your health.

Sure, if you're at a fancy restaurant, you can order steak tartare and eat it somewhat safely. But this is not the same as tucking into a raw hamburger from the grocery store. Eating beef carpaccio at a fine dining establishment involves multiple steps taken by the butcher, restaurant, and chefs that help to minimize the growth of bacteria. But these steps aren't necessarily taken when you buy any red meat and eat it raw. As Livestrong explains, eating raw meat could result in ingesting bacteria like listeria or E.coli. Due to the life-threatening illnesses that could be caused by the raw meat trend, we hope to see it calm down a bit in 2023.

Nacho tables are another TikTok food trend that emerged in 2022. The craze took off through videos showcasing a hack for making a huge amount of nachos. In nacho table TikTok videos, trend followers create the eponymous table by covering a surface with tin foil and then building their nachos atop it. People then add chips, beans, meat, sour cream, cheese, and salsa. The recipe itself isn't the unique part — it's about the presentation. In the end, everyone has a large serving of nachos in front of them. This eliminates the need for passing around bowls of nachos or ingredients. It also means you don't have to wash as many dishes afterward.

As Today explains, this food trend didn't receive as much hate as similar "table" trends, like pasta tables. However, there are noticeable issues with the nacho tables concept. For one, it's meant to bring together a large group of people to eat shared food with their hands. This is not the most sanitary way to eat. Another issue is the extremely large amount of food you have to buy. You'll probably need to at least double or triple your normal nacho recipe to make a nacho table. This results in yet another problem: giving everyone the same (enormous) amount of food. For some people, the amount laid in front of them may be perfect, but for others, they may end up with too little or too much. We hope this trend subsides a bit in 2023.

You probably already know that butter boards were a huge thing last year. The food trend, like many, took off via TikTok. In one video, the TikTok user compares the shared appetizer to a charcuterie board, and she even uses a similar wooden slab to create it. First, she spreads softened butter over the entire surface of the board using a knife. Then, she adds flavoring to butter, through ingredients like salt, lemon zest, and honey. Then, other ingredients like red onion, herbs, and edible flower petals are added. To eat, users take pieces of bread and scoop up sections of the decorated butter. This TikTok was one of many viral videos that showcased the butter board trend.

Although it may be less off-putting than some more controversial 2022 food trends, there is still something off-putting about eating butter like that — even when a board is shared between friends. We are not the only ones to think so. On the comments of another viral butter board TikTok, people discussed their issues with it, mostly about the unhealthiness of the trend, the fluctuating price of butter due to inflation, the possible damage to the board after letting butter sit on it for an extended period, and the likelihood of butter contamination while using this to feed a group. On top of that, Forbes warns that butter boards have great potential for causing food poisoning. The people have spoken: Many want to see fewer butter boards in 2023.

Like many of the worst 2022 food trends, toaster grilled cheese comes with the risk of endangering yourself and others. Videos that hopped on this craze showcased users attempting to cook an entire grilled cheese inside of their toasters. The method is meant to create two evenly toasted sides of the sandwich, perfectly melted cheese, and fewer things to wash afterward. People attempted this by turning the toaster sideways and putting one slice into each slot, putting the entire sandwich into a toaster bag, using a panini press made for inserting into specific toasters, or using one slice of bread folded in half.

All of these methods present hacks meant to shorten the process of making grilled cheese. Unfortunately for sandwich fans, toaster grilled cheese is generally unsafe. The reason is that cheese can melt off the bread, falling into the rest of the toaster and catching on fire (via MTV). Most of the techniques mentioned earlier — including flipping the toaster, using one bread slice, or buying a toaster panini press — do not eliminate the possibility of a cheese fire. That's because there are places where the cheese can make contact with the toaster. Toaster bags eliminate the risk of fire, but they then add extra steps. These bags do not last forever, and, as noted by HomesFan, they need to be washed after use. With all of this in mind, we don't think it's worth bringing back this unsafe and inconvenient trend in 2023.

In 2022, eating organ meat was trendy. Videos posted online showcased people eating raw or cooked animal organs, including hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys, and more. While eating offal (as animal organs are called) is nothing new, this type of food seems to have experienced an increased amount of attention in 2022. One of the trend's most famous proponents was a social media influencer known as "Liver King," who amassed millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok. Liver King, whose real name is Brian Johnson, became famous for viral videos of him eating raw organ meat, bodybuilding, or doing more online stunts. The controversial figure, like other organ meat supporters, advertised that there were nutritional benefits to be gained from eating offal, which is true (via Healthline).

Unfortunately for those that saw Liver King's muscular physique, attributed that (in part) to eating animal organs, and then tried some kidneys themselves, the influencer later publicly admitted to taking steroids, reports The Washington Post. But this is only one of the critiques we have of the over-hyped trend of eating organ meat in 2022. We admit that organ meat can be more affordable and nutrient-dense than other meats, per Cleveland Clinic. However, it's also high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Eating offal can also increase your chances of developing diseases like gout, mad cow disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and bladder cancer. In other words, not everyone should eat organ meat. We hope this popular and influential trend chills out a bit this year.

A more specific trend of 2022 was "pink sauce." This food received attention last year when it was touted by its creator in viral videos on TikTok. Inventor Chef Pii — a personal chef who goes by this name online (via the Los Angeles Times) — first shared videos of her eating food dipped into a mysterious pink-colored sauce. People were intrigued by its unique, vibrant color — which comes from dragon fruit. Chef Pii then started selling the product online. People purchased this sauce ... but as soon as they did, things started going very wrong.

Buyers criticized the product for arriving damaged, having labeling errors, and being overpriced, according to USA Today. Critics also said that the sauce was shipped carelessly, since the product, which contained milk, was sometimes sent without methods to keep it cold. People also said the sauce tasted like ranch, complaining that there was nothing unique about its flavor. Others just said it tasted bad. Most disappointingly, some of the sauce bottles didn't even look pink (via Vice). The backlash surrounding this product has been consistent. Even the FDA was reportedly involved in the pink sauce debacle. We doubt pink sauce will be trending in 2023. Maybe that's not the worst thing in the world.

Sleepy chicken was among the more irritating trends of the past year. It gained traction through an image illustrating chicken breasts cooking in NyQuil, the cold medication meant to relieve nighttime symptoms (via The Sun). Other photos showed the chicken looking cooked and blue. There were few supporters, but lots of people were talking about "sleepy chicken" with disgust and reposting photos and videos of chicken doused in cold medicine.

The trend got so much attention that the FDA issued a public warning about the dangers of "sleepy chicken." It warned that people could unknowingly be ingesting large amounts of NyQuil this way, which could be dangerous. Also, cooking NyQuil vaporizes it. Inhaling these NyQuil fumes could damage your lungs, said the FDA. That's not to mention the changes taking place within the cooked NyQuil, which are also potentially bad for your health.

TikTok moderators also joined in the criticism, removing photos and videos discussing it from the company's platform. Finally, people began to question the validity of this trend in the first place. With so few supporters and so many critics (even before the removal of videos), how much of a craze was "sleepy chicken" anyways? Mashable even dubbed it a fake trend. Since there wasn't much to this concept in the first place, we don't think it will stick around in 2023. If it resurfaces, don't fall for this sham recipe again.