TikTok is increasingly influencing what young people eat - study

TikTok is becoming not just a platform for entertainment, but a full-fledged tool that can shape the food preferences and behaviour of young people. The authors of a study published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies came to this conclusion: the platform's influence is explained by a combination of algorithmic recommendations, social environment and emotional involvement of users.

The work is based on an online survey conducted in 2025 among 406 active TikTok users. According to the researchers, content - especially short cooking videos - can determine what young people will eat, what places they will go to, and how they will rate the recipes they see in the feed.

As corresponding author Artur Strzelecki (University of Economics in Katowice, Poland) explains, young users are increasingly "customising" their eating habits to what they regularly encounter on social media. As a result, culinary trends from TikTok start to work as a navigator for everyday eating - from choosing a dish to deciding whether to trust a particular tip or review.

The study tested several hypotheses about the mechanisms of this influence - and, according to the authors, all of them received support. Food attitudes and behaviours are likely to be influenced by:

• tikTok's sense of "usefulness" (as a source of ideas and tips),

• the entertaining presentation of the content,

• virality of recipes,

• influencers' reviews of places and food,

• social influence (opinion of family, friends, colleagues),

• emotional "connection" with content authors,

• the user's general attitude towards culinary trends.

The authors note that the combination of personalised "For You" rendition and engagement mechanics makes such effects especially noticeable with a young audience - one that actively consumes short videos and quickly picks up trends.