Which Controversial TikTok Food Would You Avoid At All Costs? - Mashed Exclusive Survey
For the past couple of years, a myriad of craveable culinary tips, tricks, and recipes have gone viral on TikTok, the social media platform with more than one billion users worldwide (via TikTok). You might remember the frothy, whipped Dalgona coffee recipe trend, which required simple, cheap ingredients you may have lying around your house, like instant coffee, sugar, hot water, and milk. Or maybe you tried the baked feta pasta recipe, an indulgent dish that appeared to trigger an uptick feta cheese purchases in grocery stores (per New York Times). Perhaps you ended up piping out tiny dollops of pancake batter into a pan or griddle for TikTok's viral pancake cereal. Or maybe now you're hooked on the new pancake spaghetti trend that has taken the platform by storm in recent months.
While some TikTok recipes have the power to help users discover their hidden passion for cooking, there are certainly a slew of food trends people can't stand. Pancake cereal seemed to open the floodgates for a series of sugary, and frankly, unnecessary breakfast food adaptations, like the mini donut cereal. Then, there was the stomach-churning Mac 'N Hot Cheetos that racked up millions of views (via TikTok). Some trends are simply worth erasing from your memory, but there's no denying that the app has forever changed the way we think about food. With that in mind, we asked our readers which TikTok food trends they'd definitely avoid.
Most would avoid TikTok's NyQuil Chicken like the plague
In an exclusive Mashed survey, we asked a total of 604 individuals to share what TikTok foods they think should be avoided at all costs. The one dish that came out on top as the least favorable with 50.66% of the votes was NyQuil Chicken. This abominable combination has to be satire, but there's a reason why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning of the dangers of consuming the dish, stating that "even if you don't eat the chicken, inhaling the medication's vapors while cooking could cause high levels of the drugs to enter your body," which poses a threat to your lungs and causes you to overdose on the medicine.
Pink Sauce came in second, with 21.19% of the votes. The Pepto-Bismol-colored Pink Sauce became infamous when TikTok user @chef.pii began posting herself eating chicken wings and tacos slathered in the neon stuff. Pitaya, also known as dragonfruit, gives the sauce its fluorescent pinkness. In its early stages, the product faced criticism for its use of milk when the bottles weren't shipped with any sort of refrigeration or expiration date (per Los Angeles Times). After a controversial start to Chef Pii's business venture, Dave's Gourmet has stepped in to make Pink Sauce a safe, marketable product.
Healthy Coke garnered 14.07% of the votes, followed by Countertop Nachos at 7.95%. Cold Brew Lemonade came last at 6.13%.