Despite the diverse fields of visual blogging across various social media platforms, including art, sports, and daily life, food bloggers have garnered a significant share of attention and following. Their content comes in various formats and styles, yet they are united by a unique manner of presentation and distinctive vocabulary that have become part of digital pop culture. Surveys and digital practices indicate their influence on preferences and innovations related to the food industry, dietary habits, and purchasing choices, offering vibrant visual and human experiences connected to the joy of eating, culinary arts, and food tourism. This has implications not only for relevant economic activities but also for public health, especially among younger audiences, as well as cultural and social vocabulary related to the enjoyment of food, revealing deeper dimensions of impact beyond simply sharing experiences or new recipes.
Diverse Spectrum:
The term “blogging” originated with the emergence of primitive blogs in the late 1990s as a form of user-generated content. The term remained in use even as blogging’s popularity waned in the face of the rise of social media networks and the variety of content they offer—especially the second generation of visual content networks, namely Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. This shift transformed the term “blogger” into a generic description for anyone publishing updates about their daily life, experiences, and opinions, whether through traditional blogging platforms or social media. Subsequently, new terms like “YouTubers” for YouTube bloggers and “TikTokers” for TikTok bloggers emerged, reflecting shared characteristics of updates, continuity, and personal style, while also varying in terms of the publication platforms, topics, and media used, whether audio blogging, video, or text.
Canadian Jim Leff is recognized as one of the first food bloggers worldwide. In 1997, he co-founded the forum “Chowhound,” which focused on sharing and exchanging experiences about restaurants and became the foundation for several later specialized digital food platforms. However, the first “food blogger” in the contemporary sense was Julie Powell, who created a blog called “Julie/Julia Project” to apply French recipes, with her story later adapted into a popular American film.
Over time, food blogging has gained global popularity; the number of food blogs is estimated to exceed 600 million worldwide, producing more than 2 billion pieces of content daily. On TikTok alone, the number of videos published under the hashtag (#foodblogger) is 1.5 million posts, with the hashtag (#Foodie) at 27 million and (#Foodies) at 2.7 million.
Food bloggers enjoy four times the following of any other industry, with the average monthly income for a food blogger being 9,169—higherthanthe9,169—higherthanthe5,000 for travel bloggers and $5,100 for lifestyle and mommy bloggers. It is important to note that these figures are estimates and vary from country to country, depending on advertising expenditure, audience engagement, etc. This enhances the appeal of food blogging as a specialized field that encompasses a wide range of practices, from presenting diverse recipes, restaurant and food product reviews, to supermarket experiences and shopping, along with dietary experts and weight loss systems, among other varied forms of digital content.
The Arab Experience:
The experience of food blogging has transitioned into the Arab world, with a rise in the number of food bloggers driven by the growth of commercial activities in restaurants and the food industry. These industries adopted marketing strategies that partly relied on social media influencers providing reviews of various restaurants, cafes, products, and food services, often promoting them for advertising revenue and sponsorships. This practice has sometimes impacted the credibility of this type of content.
The community of Arab food bloggers includes a considerable number of bloggers who cannot be assessed by a single standard regarding their influence, content quality, or even the type of content they produce. While some have a limited following of just thousands, others reach billion-level followings, notably Saudi food blogger Hussein Salam, known as “Sahis,” who has 6.1 million followers on TikTok and over 9 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, which has nearly 2 billion views—demonstrating the significant popularity and wide influence of this type of content and its producers, particularly the influencers.
Different types of food blogging in the Arab world can be distinguished, with considerable overlap between them. They generally include several categories:
Restaurant Reviewers: These bloggers film their experiences at various restaurants and cafes, offering opinions on food quality and service. They are the most controversial group due to skepticism about the credibility of some bloggers.
Recipe Creators: Some of these can be professional or amateur cooks, like Kuwaiti blogger Ahmad Al-Zamel, who has 4 million followers on Instagram, and Saudi blogger Hisham Baeshan, with 4.8 million. There is also Palestinian chef Abu Julia, who has 4.7 million followers on TikTok and 3.5 million on Instagram, with his YouTube channel views exceeding 188 million.
Food Culture Bloggers: Most of them are nutritionists and doctors, boasting millions of followers. They provide medical advice, weigh loss or gain systems, therapeutic nutrition, and other topics.
Food and Travel Bloggers: They combine both experiences, showcasing places, cities, and countries through their restaurants and famous dishes. An example is the Dubai-based blogger known as “Mr. Taster,” who offers a diverse culinary tourism experience. This points to content produced by expatriates, whether residing in Arab countries or Arabs living abroad, portraying food from a cultural and human perspective.
Food Photographers: They dedicate their accounts to creatively showcasing dishes and dining experiences, such as UAE photographer Talal Al-Bustaki.
Food Podcast Producers: Like “Foodcast.”
Content Producers from Other Fields: They also turn to food blogging as a trending topic that yields more views.
Debate Over Implications:
With the widespread practice of food blogging and the expanding community of food bloggers, the implications of this phenomenon have become a topic of discussion through various debates, highlighting some of which include:
Innovation vs. Marketing Deception: Food blogging relies on a variety of visually rich interactive content, witnessing many innovations in presentation modes and narrative styles that have influenced the digital expression space across social media with content blending entertainment, social, and cultural experiences. Evaluations from social media influencers play a crucial role in affecting investments in hospitality, restaurants, and food industries. A survey conducted by the Dubai-based marketing agency “Reach” in September 2024 showed that nearly 70% of social media followers surveyed ate at specific restaurants because they saw influencers doing the same.
Utilizing food blogging influencers has become an effective marketing strategy, with ads now a primary income source for food bloggers. However, some have misused these tools, presenting misleading content to encourage followers to consume specific brands or even to blackmail restaurant owners into avoiding negative reviews. This issue becomes more serious with the involvement of doctors and nutritionists in this field, with some recommending certain medications on social media; a practice that urgently calls for the application of medical and media ethics concerning the production of health-related content for the public.
Impact on Dietary Choices and Public Health: Unlike the typical stereotype of food lovers often portrayed with excess weight, some food bloggers ensure to present themselves with athletic physiques and defined muscles. However, this muscular appearance does not prevent them from promoting unhealthy eating patterns rich in sugars and fats through visually appealing presentations that encourage gluttony and unhealthy consumption, going beyond reasonable limits in “mukbang” videos that broadcast live eating vast quantities of food, whether as a challenge or relaxation in what’s called “autonomous sensory meridian response.”
Although “mukbang” originates from Korea, some Arab video bloggers have adopted it, achieving wide popularity, such as the Iraqi blogger residing in Germany, Amir Ali, whose “mukbang” videos, featuring large quantities of noodles or chicken, attract over 25 million views per video. His videos on YouTube have garnered 1.6 billion views, with 2 million TikTok followers. Despite numerous influencers promoting healthy eating patterns, a larger share tends to favor dishes loaded with vast amounts of food or heavy, fast meals, reinforcing a culture of gluttony and the subsequent health issues, particularly among younger audiences.
Economy and Diversity vs. Waste Culture: Food blogging has not only served as a medium for cultural exchange among different peoples but also as a realm for social expression using one of the most popular blogging areas, such as food reviews by individuals with disabilities. Notably, food blogger and nutritionist Ahmed Al-Turki is recognized as the first blind food blogger, having 2.7 million views and 28,000 subscribers on YouTube and 371,000 followers with 3.9 million likes on TikTok, along with 206,000 followers on Instagram. Bloggers have also engaged with their communities, leading many content producers to offer low-cost recipes, alternatives to luxury food products, or even home food production, responding to one of the most pressing budgetary concerns for families—food.
Conversely, some blogging practices reinforce unproductive behaviors that promote a culture of excess consumption—and even waste—such that some challenges revolve around consuming large quantities of food or outright throwing it on the ground, prompting some bloggers to create videos preparing meals for the needy.
In conclusion, food blogging has become a digital practice that cannot be ignored or underestimated in its impact. It has emerged as a significant contributor to digital pop culture, bridging into the community context. It is impossible to categorically define food blogging as a negative or positive phenomenon due to the inherent flaws in such rigid classifications, not only because of the varied practices among this broad spectrum of bloggers but also due to the complexity of the phenomenon itself, which transcends the boundaries of virtual reality.
