The Truth Behind AI-Generated Food Content

First, WHAT IS AI?

Here’s the answer as generated by AI (Chat GPT):

“Artificial intelligence is when computers are designed to think and learn in ways that mimic human intelligence. Instead of just following fixed instructions, AI can recognize patterns, make decisions, solve problems, and even improve over time as it processes more information.”

In the last two years, AI has exploded. Free online programs such as ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, and Gemini are fast becoming the norm for everything from answering questions to writing sympathy cards, researching, and even cooking advice and recipes. Parents, your children could be using it for their schoolwork.

When used ethically and responsibly, these applications hold incredible possibilities for the future. However, they’re also being used by bad actors who care nothing about you. They create photos, recipes, and full websites either completely AI-generated or by stealing the work of hardworking food bloggers and altering it with AI.

Unfortunately, unscrupulous ad networks that are just out to make a buck have monetized these sites, which only fuels the fraud.

Thankfully, AI-generated content and photography can not currently be copyrighted, even though many of the slop sites say “Copyright.”

how ai “develops” a recipe

I asked ChatGPT where a recipe comes from if I were to ask it for one. Here is the response:

“When you ask me for a recipe, I don’t go pull one directly from a specific cookbook, website, or database. Instead, I generate a recipe based on what I’ve learned from patterns in a huge mix of text sources I was trained on (like publicly available cookbooks, food writing, and general recipe structures). That means I’m creating a recipe for you in real time, rather than retrieving or copying one from somewhere else.”

That’s all well and good that AI is not directly “copying” a recipe from somewhere else, like many slop farmers do. However, it isn’t testing the recipe either.

AI has also been known to spit out recipes with dangerous ingredients or combinations that make no sense. Bratwurst ice cream, anyone? (UK Guardian)

A QUESTION FROM A FRIEND

After commenting on numerous Facebook posts shared by friends alerting them to the fact that they were sharing an AI-generated photo and recipe, directing them to various videos that people have been doing to alert their followers about this issue, online articles, an HBO John Oliver segment, and finally receiving an email from a friend inquiring about AI recipes, I decided to gather all the information here, so I can just direct them to this post.

And yes, by exposing them here, I can recoup some of the earnings I’ve lost by having my images and recipes stolen by the AI slop farmers.

The friend, who is a retired library teacher and taught students about copyright and fair use, had this question:

“Perhaps it is obvious, and I’m just unaware, but how do you tell if a recipe is AI-generated?  I’m generally fairly tech savvy, but I have to admit I’m not sure what I’m looking for to recognize AI.  Hard to keep up with tech!”

THE ANSWER:

The answer is complex.

The fakery is out of control and quite nefarious. It’s referred to as AI slop. Until laws governing AI usage are enacted and penalties imposed for theft and deception, it’s the Wild West on social media and the internet right now!

It’s not always easy to tell if a recipe was AI-generated, so by learning to spot the fake sites, Pinterest pins, Facebook pages, and groups, you’ll be better informed and can avoid being misled by low-quality, deceptive content.

HOW FRAUDSTERS CREATE THE IMAGES:

I asked ChatGPT to create a photo of a cheesy meatloaf. It took a few minutes to generate, but using the “GPT” for image creation, I got this photo:

It then provided a list of options to fine-tune the photo, and I could choose any of them because ChatGPT is forever helpful:

Style Variations

• 1. Extreme Cheese Pull 🧀
  Focus on long, stretchy melted cheese pulling dramatically from the loaf.
• 2. Steam Rising 🌫️
  Capture the heat—visible steam rising from the freshly cut slice.
• 3. Rustic Cast Iron Detail 🍳
  Highlight the skillet, rustic utensils, and hearty textures.
• 4. Hands in Frame ✋
  A human hand holding the knife or fork mid-slice for realism.
• 5. Overhead Action Shot 📸
  Top-down perspective showing the slice being lifted away from the loaf.
• 6. Plated Slice Moment 🍽️
  Slice being transferred onto a rustic plate with garnish and sides.

I chose Option #1 and got the scary image at the top of this post. Yes, it’s that easy to create a “food photo” with AI.

This example may be extreme, but given the number of people sharing fake AI-generated food photos and recipes on social media, many people can’t tell the difference and either unknowingly or actively promote this deception.

Here they are again.

Human food photographers and food bloggers have invested thousands of dollars in camera and lighting equipment, editing programs, props, courses, and workshops to better themselves and learn their craft. AI-generated photos meant to deceive take all that away with the click of a keyboard.

Here are photos of REAL human-created, human-tested meatloaf recipes. Beautiful human imperfection!

HOW TO determine AN AI-GENERATED FOOD PHOTO:

Having done food photography for over 15 years, I can pick them out quickly. But that’s not always the case to the untrained eye. AI food photo creation is improving, making it increasingly challenging to differentiate real from artificial intelligence.

If you’ve ever paid attention to what that perfect swirl of mayonnaise that was machine-filled looks like when you first open the jar, it’s that same feel and look you’re getting in an AI-generated food photo.

To boil it down, I asked ChatGPT how to distinguish an AI-generated photo from a real one. (There are exceptions to these.)

1. Look for weird shapes or edges

• Plates, utensils, glasses, or cutlery that look warped or uneven.
• Food items with inconsistent shapes or impossible stacking.

2. Inspect textures

• Sauces, spreads, or creams that appear too smooth or glossy.
• Meat, bread, or vegetables lacking natural imperfections.

3. Check shadows and reflections

• Shadows that fall in the wrong direction or don’t match the light source.
• Reflections in liquids, metal, or glass that look blurry, missing, or distorted.

4. Examine details in background and props

• Chairs, napkins, utensils, or packaging that appear merged or floating.
• Fingers, hands, or human elements that look twisted or extra-long.

5. Watch for over-perfection

• Symmetrical plating that feels unnatural.
• Colors that are too bright, uniform, or perfectly arranged.

6. Look for impossible or inconsistent ingredients

• Garnishes that don’t match the cuisine.
• Cooked textures that seem incorrect (e.g., raw and baked parts mixed).

7. Metadata check

• Has unusual software information.
• The absence of EXIF data (Exchangeable Image File format data), which is a standard format for storing metadata within image and audio files created by digital cameras.

8. Reverse image search

• Use Google Lens or TinEye to see if the image exists elsewhere.
• Lack of real-world references can be a red flag.

9. Use AI detection tools

• Tools like Hive Moderation, Reality Defender, or AI image detectors can flag suspicious images.

10. IF SOMETHING LOOKS OFF, IT PROBABLY IS:

ChatGPT was even nice enough to create a neat little graphic for this information:

Often, an attempt is made to make everything look extra buttery, cheesy, saucy, and gooey because people respond to this.

Google lens – a free tool everyone can use

If you’re unsure whether it’s real or AI, right-click on the photo, select “Search with Google Lens.” There are a lot of variables, but Google Lens will often reveal its origin. It also works on Facebook.

Here’s one of my top recipes that I had Google Lens inspect: Beef Braciole

Note all the visual matches on the right because it’s a human-created copyrighted photo.

This AI slop recipe for “Crunchy Fried Cheese Stuffed Doritos” has no visual matches on Google Lens except for an AI-generated pin on Pinterest. When visual matches do come up, they often take you to the Facebook groups and pages of the AI slop farmer. (See the Facebook section below.)

By the way, I love stuffed Doritos, don’t you?

FAKE AI CONTENT ON PINTEREST

Did you know that at least 75% of the content on Pinterest is AI-generated slop? That and the ads leave very little room for an authentic creator.

A YouTube channel I will not link to that has thousands of followers and is raking in a lot of money teaches scammers how to flood Pinterest with AI garbage. The people behind this scheme don’t care who gets hurt; frankly, they’re laughing at the people eating it up.

This article explains how AI slop farmers are specifically targeting older women. Futurism: Slop Farmer Boasts About How He Uses AI to Flood Social Media to Trick Older Women

what to look for on pinterest

• If a pin makes you pause and think, “something feels off,” it’s probably AI.
• Use the checklist/graphic above to distinguish AI pins and recipes from real food bloggers’ pins and recipes.
• Look at their Pinterest profile. Because they’re spamming Pinterest with pins, they have a high number of impressions, the number after the follower and following count, which are low in comparison to the number of impressions. A real food blogger would love these kinds of numbers. Real food bloggers don’t spam Pinterest with pins because they don’t want their accounts shut down; they’ve invested way too much time and resources developing their following and curating content. The fraudsters will just start a new account.
• Oh, look! The same photo is used on Facebook in the example below, but the scammer is using a different name.

• A popular “format” for these AI pins has stacked images that look very similar. These taller pins often get more attention and engagement.

• Unfortunately, the AI-slop farmers are also stealing real bloggers’ work, running them through AI programs to alter them to get around copyright laws, and publishing as their own. This practice is called an image2image attack. Here are two examples of mine that have been stolen and altered with AI: My Italian Pot Roast and my Cherry Tomato Tart recipes. AI on the left, mine on the right.

Here’s the other photo on the pin the AI fraudster stole and altered:

And another…

fake ai content on facebook

Facebook has become an absolute cesspool of AI-generated food, recipes, fake groups, and fake pages. The more these get shared by your well-meaning friends, the more the algorithm perpetuates the scam.

There was a time when a blue checkmark meant something. It no longer does, because Facebook is granting blue checkmarks to fraudsters.

what to look for on facebook:

• Use the checklist/graphic above to distinguish AI photos.
• Click the name of the Facebook page sharing the photo, go to “About,” and click on the “Page Transparency” section. This Facebook page, with a photo of a lovely woman holding up “her” AI cookbook (for sale on Amazon if you want an AI-generated cookbook) and 296,000 followers, also originated in Morocco. If there is a website link on the Facebook page, look for the ad network on the site. With 296,000 followers and that much traffic, “she” would be in a higher-quality ad network like Raptive, except Raptive doesn’t monetize AI slop.

• This page has 79,000 followers with a profile photo of a lovely woman in an apron who wants to share her home cooking. Except that someone in Algiers created the page. The same AI-generated profile photo is being used on Pinterest in the example I showed above but is using a different name.

• Then there’s this popular page with 169,000 followers. The “Page Transparency” shows that the page originated in Morocco and Turkey.

• If they provide the whole recipe in a post, it’s probably AI-generated or copied from a real food blogger. Facebook pays bonuses to creators (real and fake) when posts get shared a lot, and people LOVE getting the whole recipe without having to click on a site, so they share away.
• Any legitimate website like Taste of Home, Food and Wine, New York Times or mine along with thousands of real bloggers will never post the whole recipe on Facebook; there’s always a link to click back to the site because that’s our bread and butter. And yes, a fraudster in Morocco, Turkey or Algiers is getting paid because of Facebook user gullibility.
• A few ingredients are listed on an overlay that looks like a ripped piece of paper.  Like the stacked pin format above, this format for Facebook has been popular with the sloppers.

MORE RESOURCES

Realbloggers.org (Website of real, verified bloggers)

Futurism: Slop Farmer Boasts About How He Uses AI to Flood Social Media to Trick Older Women (Article)

HBO John Oliver Segment (Profanity Alert)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKPLxn2tDxF (Jebb West Video, Profanity Alert)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKer99dtb4H (Jebb West Video, Profanity Alert)

Krista – Far From Normal on TikTok (Video)

AI-Generated Recipes: Brilliant or a Recipe for Disaster (Podcast from Christina Hitchcock at Behind the Recipe)

FODMAP Everyday – How to Detect AI-Generated Recipes and Images Online

AI may be able to mimic food content, but it can’t replace the experience of a real cook in the kitchen. When you choose recipes from trusted sources, you know they’ve been tested, tasted, and written with you in mind.

With a real human food blogger, you have recourse when a recipe does not work out well, which is the rating and comment system. The FTC prohibits us from altering ratings. Because a human is behind the blog, we care about you and the results.

Here, you’ll always find recipes created by a real person, me, who has cooked them, tasted them, loved them, and made sure they’ll work in your kitchen. And yes, sometimes tossed into the trash or compost because they weren’t good enough to share with you.

I plan to update this post as I learn new things. If you ever have any questions or are wondering whether something is real, please reach out to me or other human creators you trust.

Thank you!

I’d love to hear what you think. In the comments, share your experience with AI-generated food content. I’m always interested in how readers navigate this new online food world!