Culinary content on Instagram: A recipe to promote food literacy? A content analysis of the recipes shared by popular food influencers on Instagram

At least 15 million #recipe posts circulate on Instagram, often created by food influencers. As online recipes are recognized as a potential way to promote food literacy, especially among emerging adults, investigating what food influencers share and how they promote these recipes may reveal promising strategies to promote food literacy. Therefore, the current research presents a content and nutritional analysis to explore what popular food influencers among emerging adults portray in their Instagram recipe posts (N=166) in terms of (1) references to food literacy, (2) nutritional value, and (3) communication techniques. First, findings reveal that food influencers rarely embed references to food literacy in their recipe posts, especially regarding meal planning, food selection, meal consumption, and evaluating food-related information. Only in 28.9% of the posts information was given on how to prepare a recipe. Second, 220 recipes were included in the 166 recipe posts, of which the majority were main course meals that met at least six of the eleven nutrient criteria for a healthy main meal (65%). Finally, food influencers promote their recipe posts as positive narratives, focusing on the tastiness (66%) and convenience (40.9%) of meals. Health promotors should note the potential role of food influencers and seek ways to collaborate to provide information on how food literacy cues can be embedded in their communications and provide insights into how influencers' recipes can be optimized.