Never mind the sickly taste, just post that picture pronto

Viral sandwiches and Dubai chocolate now permeate our supermarket shelves. Katie Rosseinsky looks at why stores are caving to TikTok and how these trends got their start

- By Katie Rosseinsky

It’s the summer of the Franken-sandwich. First, Marks & Spencer unleashed its strawberries and cream offering, two wedges of “soft, sweetened bread” cemented together with blobs of cream cheese and studded with strawberry slices. It looked like something that a piece of errant AI software might dream up, if you asked it to imagine what people eat at Wimbledon - and yet it proved to be a sellout.

Now, desperate not to miss out on any of the action, Tesco has launched a "birthday cake" sandwich of its own, featuring brioche bread filled with multicoloured sprinkles, cream cheese icing and, for that extra hit of sweetness, vanilla frosting. And yes, you can get it as part of a meal deal (so you can enjoy it with a smoothie and a tiny tub of hummus and carrots, if you're looking to create a truly discombobulating lunchtime experience).

These products have more in common than just their sickly fillings. Both are part of a wave of supermarket food products that seem designed to be talked about rather than actually, you know, be eaten. Is anyone over the age of five actually enjoying snacking on two slices of sweet bread doused in dollops of icing (and, presumably, cresting the wave of the resultant sugar rush)? I'm not convinced. Are they still clamouring to get in on the trend, posting photos and videos on social media and essentially doing the retailer's marketing for them? Absolutely.

Welcome to the TikTok-ification of the humble weekly food shop. Supermarkets, not usually the most clout-chasing of operations, have become thirsty for online hype. How are they trying to generate this? By coming up with ever more bizarre products and flavour combinations.