Fake Food - Modern Use

Modern Use

Fake foods are used in many ways, such as props for backgrounds in movies, television shows, theatrical plays, television commercials, print ads and trade shows. Fake foods are also used to display lifelike replicas of real foods for restaurants, grocery chains, museums, banquet halls, casino buffets, cruise ships and in many other instances in which real foods can not be displayed. For instance, the American company Fake Foods began when fast food restaurant Wendy's needed fake kale for their salad bar display.

More recently, fake foods were also used for nutrition education and consumer research.

In North America, fake food is very often used for retail displays. Furniture retailers use it to give their furniture settings, a lived-in look.

Many restaurants in Japan use fake foods to display their popular dishes in their windows and attract customers. The plastic replicas are much more expensive than the food they imitate, but can last indefinitely. For this reason, many companies that manufacture fake food have stagnant or declining profits.

An emerging meaning of the term fake food is a popular substitute for the more scientific term pseudofood, or pseudobezoar, an indigestible object introduced intentionally into the digestive system, which takes space in the stomach so that dieters feel full, eat little, and lose weight.