Dont try this as home.

         The gig is up! Due to my investigative researching, I have unveiled the secret behind food advertising. Don't you hate it when a fast food commercial come on and the falsely advertised 1000 calorie burger seduces you by its succulent and juicy appeal?

How bout when you are grocery shopping in Walmart, and the Stoffers lasagna dinner which appears on the package to be olive garden legit, instead turns out to be a pile of red layered mush.

 
  I've come to the realization that there are two types of shoppers, the one who look for the cheapest great value prices, the one who immediately refers to the back of every packaging…. Nutrition Facts, but regardless of which ever shopper you are, most people's final, and some times first purchasing decision factor is based on how appealing the product appears on the front packaging alone.

 

Most people have come to the realization, that when it comes to food advertising, what you see is not usually what you get. I know this type of stuff happens all the time, its advertising, but sometimes I still get fooled, and oh how annoying I find it. Ha call me a hypocrite, but this is probably what I will be doing in the future. Ohh the irony. But whatever, no ones asking me. I guess that's just one on of the marketing secrets to draw the consumer into a purchasing decision. This is how they do it. :

Ever wonder how they are able to photograph ice cream and cereal without the cereal looking soggy, or the ice cream melting?  Ha welll its because its not ice-cream at all, most food photographers use a mixture of solid shortening, corn syrup and powdered sugar which can be scooped to simulate real  ice cream. And as for the cereal, they use heavy cream instead of milk.  In the past they would use white glue, but now most cereal companies prohibit this practice.

I've always wondered how they did that!

Other techniques include:

• Adding water to beverages to add a sparkle to the drink by allowing light to filter through better.
• Spraying food with mixtures of water, corn syrup and other liquids to retain the fresh look of the food. 
• Brown shoe polish, so raw meat appears to be just-out-of-the-roaster succulent.
• Motor oil, as a stand-in for unphotogenic syrups.
• Hairspray, which can give (the appearance of) new life to a drying-out slab of cake.
• Blowtorch, for browning the edges of raw hamburger patties,
• Spray deodorant, which gives grapes that desirable frosty veneer.
• …. Are you still Hungry?

 But the hardcore truth is that there's nothing wrong with these techniques. Due to the time it takes to set up a photo shoot and get the perfect shot, this is simply what it takes.  It's nearly impossible to use real, cooked food 100% of the time.  Real food tends to ‘fade fast’.. steam never lasts long, ice cream melts, produce wilts or turns brown, glistening roasts dry out. If the final photograph looks realistic and appealing, then the photographer has done his or her job, and it’s not an easy job to do well.  This type of thing is done all the time, not just in food photography.

Kamps, Haje. (2008, February 28) The dirty tricks of food photographers. Pixiq. Retrieved from  2008. Web. February. 2001<http://www.pixiq.com/article/food-photo-tricks>