There are few relationships that have become as inexorably intertwined as that of Instagram and food.

In the past few years, the social media channel – which is primarily an avenue for people to post pictures – has emerged as a font of wisdom about food, gently nudging users in the direction of restaurants perceived to have Instagrammable food or places that are so beautiful to look at, they are immediately bestowed the title “Instagram-friendly”.

In fact, a quick search on Instagram will yield 329 million posts tagged under #food.

Most consumers will notice this instantly in real-time situations at restaurants.

Few – if any – meals make it into most people’s mouths without first being photographed to death.

As a consequence, most mid-range restaurants and food operators now have to think very carefully about the aesthetics of their eatery (do they have an Instagram wall, for instance?) and how they present their food to an increasingly more visually-educated public.