The Real Reason You Shouldn't Always Trust TikTok Food Hacks
If you're into learning how to make food the fast and easy way, TikTok videos have a lot of allure. We all love the idea of making Instagram-worthy treats, but their reliability can be questionable. As people gained more interest in TikTok food hacks, things got a bit weird. As it turns out, TikTok trends might not actually be the best way to find out how to become a better chef.
TikTok became pretty famous among bargain hunters for its "free food" hacks, and that's okay, to a point. When a food hack becomes too popular, the free food offered by companies often vanishes soon after. Why? Well, many TikTok users end up flooding the area demanding free food until it no longer remains profitable to do so. Sometimes, this leads to less-than-stellar results.
Other issues that have been reported include bad recipes and recipes that have been downright dangerous to make. Today, we're going to look at the most common reasons why people should stay cautious about TikTok food tips.
The rise of free food hacks
The biggest problem with TikTok hacks is that they often end up dealing with offers from major companies that often don't work, are faulty, or cause problems for the company in question. Fortune discussed a Six Flags TikTok debacle where too many people used a "hack" trying to get unlimited food at the park. The influx of customers who only wanted free food caused food wait times to balloon to as long as 45 minutes to an hour. As a result of the problems with the program, Six Flags discontinued this offer.
Then, there was the $2 Chipotle burrito that never was. According to The Takeout, this "hack" involved asking for a burrito with just beans and cheese as a side. This would, theoretically, get run up as $2. In practice, most franchise locations would never allow for this, so it ended up with many full-price burritos that just didn't have much filling in them. People were pretty mad.
Inc noted a case where publishing a TikTok hack also cost a hack publisher her job. In recent years, a Chick-Fil-A fired an employee going by the handle of @anasteezy, who showed the world how to get twice the Arnold Palmer at the price of a single drink. When news got out, the hack went viral. She made an update post claiming that she was fired.
Foul, foul food ideas
Of course, you don't need to buy food from a company to get duped by a bad TikTok food hack. Nasty recipe fakeouts can happen too. Mythical Chef decided to pull a fast one on his viewers when he created "Spokane Pizza," a culinary disaster that The Takeout says was so bad that it erupted into a major Twitter backlash. The "pizza," if you want to call it that, featured strawberries, cheese, salmon, bell pepper, onion, and fry sauce. Bleh!
Newsflash: no one in Spokane eats that. In fact, people would probably ask you if you're feeling okay if you were to order this at a venue. It also wouldn't be surprising if this caused you to get sick. The gross TikTok food seems pretty gag-worthy. This is far from the only time TikTok offered foul or gross advice. Pedestrian even wrote about one TikTok viral video showing a girl making a milkshake ... in her toilet.
A good rule of thumb is that you shouldn't try a TikTok hack that involves you eating stuff out of the toilet. Or eating stuff that looks like it belongs there. However, some food hacks are a bit more insidious and can land you in the hospital if you try them. In the case of frozen honey, it can be delicious or, as the New York Times reported, could put a diabetic person into a serious predicament.