Hi!
As 2025 is quickly nearing to a close, and so that people can make the most of these changes over the December Holidays, we have revised our sub rules. These went live 2 weeks ago and the final touches to automod went live early this week.
Below is an in-depth explanation on the changes, if you still have questions after, please feel free to ask in the comments and I'll do my best to answer.
Original images / videos only
- Current (now): If you didn’t take the photo or video, don’t post it. No stock, AI, stolen, or screenshots.
- Old (before): Original Images only (OC Only). - If you didn’t take the photo, don’t post it.
- Explanation: Dropped the "OC" term as I feel like it's less relevant in current Reddit culture terminology. Added some specific examples in to make things clearer. Oh and we now allow videos of your own food uploaded to Reddit's own native hosting 🎉
Title format
- Current (now): For Images and video, the majority of your title must specifically describe what the food is. We also allow locations, who made it and noting attempts. Any other post, keep it descriptive. A [TAG] is always needed.
- Old (before): “The majority of your title (over 50%) must specifically describe the food. Avoid vague descriptions, excessive use of emojis, and include one [square-bracketed] tag. Do not use personal appeals or emotionally compelling details, like hardships, to influence votes. Posts are removed at moderators' discretion.”
- Explanation: We've still kept the 50% specific description of what the food is, this keeps Google happy as your posts will end up in Google searches about your foods (keeps your posts popular for the long run). I think we'll keep it at this level for the foreseeable. Slimmed the rest of the rule right down and flipped it more to mention what we do allow. Also we don't really have to care as much about Emoji's, All Caps and where our [Tags] are. We hadn't updated the rule regarding other types of posts now available here, but we're going to keep them pretty loosely moderated.
Title Tags
- Current (now): [I ate] - Food you purchased and ate with no preparation of your own. (Restaurant / Food truck / Food Vendor). - [Homemade] - Food made at home by you or someone you know. - [Pro/Chef] - Made as part of your work in food. - [Text] - Text posts for help, feedback, long recipes. - [Produce] - Raw ingredients grown, foraged, butchered, or purchased, shown as ingredients. - [Podcast] - Food podcasts. - [AMA] - Food AMAs with special guests.
- Old (before): Pretty much the same list.
- Explanation: Food Podcasts can now be posted by anyone (not just approved users) but our self promotion rules still apply. If the domain gets blocked, modmail us about it (because podcast domains are kind of odd to track down). We've also changed the AMA wording to special guests instead of just arranged via the mod team.
Be nice
- Current (now): Respect others. Do not belittle or devalue users or their food.
- Old (before): Please be respectful and do not belittle users or their food.
- Explanation: Just a slight wording change, still pretty much the same meaning.
Blog and website links
- Current (now): All website links are filtered, except those listed on our domain Whitelist. Changes to the list is at moderator discretion via modmail. To have your own domain approved you need to meet the below: [Same 3 points in old and new version]
- Old (before): All domains linked in posts and comments are filtered, except those listed on our domain Whitelist. Addition or Removal to the list is at moderator discretion.
- Explanation: Dropped "domains" for "website links" as it's easier to understand (but obviously didn't change the second mention of it "nice, well done😅", well it's 50% better at least). Stated that changes are made via modmail and details making it clearer that the three points where for your own websites (self promotion).
No excessively low quality media
- Current (now): No excessively blurred, small, dark, or cropped media where the food is not visible.
- Old (before): No Low-Quality Posts or Comments.
- Explanation: This is where the big changes start, this rule title we enforced for the quality of some really bad images. But, over YEARS we had slowly slapped other random rules under this title and the rule lost all meaning and was confusing. Most of these are now their own rules with descriptions. This rule now properly states that if we can't see the food because the images is too bad, we'll remove it.
No unauthorised self‑promotion
- Current (now): No unauthorised self-promotion, off site social links/watermarks.
- Old (before): Self‑promotion and off‑site social links lived inside the broad ‘No Low‑Quality Posts or Comments’ bucket with many other items.
- Explanation: Simple small rule that still gives a nod towards the website/blog rule with "unauthorised", as we clearly do authorise some self promotion when it's been agreed with us. It's a bit more of a description than before, better than none at all and doesn't really need more than that.
No fast food chains or minimal‑effort pre‑packaged foods/snacks
- Current (now): No media from large fast food chains or minimal effort pre-packaged foods/snacks (sweets/frozen meals etc).
- Old (before): Lived as a line item (“Chain/Pre‑Packaged Food”) inside the big low‑quality list.
- Explanation: Again, cleaned up the single line rule to have it's own description and also worded it to be more in-line with what we removed and actioned. Places like McDonalds have spent Millions (probably closer to billions) over generations making sure EVERYONE knows who they are, even using things like kids play areas to make sure kids grew up with the brand. We want zero part in adding to their advertising portfolio. As for packaged stuff, it's very very low effort and we only really ever see posts about special chips (crisps) or chocolate, which are mostly a marketing gimmick.
No political comments or titles
- Current (now): Do not bring politics into comments or titles.
- Old (before): “Politics” appeared in the long low‑quality list and as part of general guidance.
- Explanation: Pretty simple, doesn't need much description, but it did need one. No "Vote" pies are not politics, stop asking us to remove them, also go vote.
Video posts must use Reddit’s own hosting
- Current (now): Links to YouTube, TicTok, Insta etc are automatically blocked.
- Old (before): Lived inside the broad ‘No Low‑Quality Posts or Comments’ bucket with many other items as "No Videos".
- Explanation: We now allow Reddit hosted videos, so this needed expanding. Posts that are just YouTube videos, TicTok's, Insta/Reels have a financial incentive and also have VERY strong shortform video traps in them. If you click out to one of those sites, you're most likely not going to click back into Reddit any time soon. YouTube comments are also filtered and checked by us as to their suitability, we didn't really need a rule about it, as it'll fall under a generic removal rule later on here.
No culture‑war comments
- Current (now): Reddit-born meme replies and culture war comments that target posters will be removed. They are off topic, unhelpful, and drive away real contributors. Examples include “Melt” on grilled cheese, “Not a burger” on chicken burgers, degrading TV show quotes or fights over international food differences.
- Old (before): As an extension of the "Be Nice" rule, abusive circlejerks will be subject to removal and/or a ban. This can result in an immediate permanent ban depending on the severity: [Same kind of examples list].
- Explanation: Big rework of this rule to use less Reddit "in" words and to use more plain English. Expanded on the "why" in the rule itself. Internally we're also looking to revise our ban procedure for this rule to be less instant perma bans and use removals first. Leave bans for those being especially mean or for users that do it a lot (trolls).
Moderator discretion
- Current (now): Mods may remove any post, comment, or user if deemed detrimental to the community.
- Old (before): Mods may remove any post, comment or user, if the post, comment or user is deemed detrimental to the community.
- Explanation: It's always been an end note under our old rules, this didn't fit Reddit's new rule structure, so it's now a full rule. Pretty simple but it'll be the catch all for edge cases and something to shut down users that like to "Rule Lawyer".
Additional mentions:
- You won't see the old "Dietary activism" rule anywhere in the list now. We didn't need to really expressly mention it, it all falls under "Be Nice" very easily, or being a user "detrimental" to the community. At the end of the day, we're a general food sub, not your soap box to virtue signal from the top of.
- We're always looking at the long-game and the wider picture with our rules. "What keeps users feeling "safe" to post here and enjoy the sub?" is a question we will always look to answer over and over again. We also balance all changes to make sure post types, user skill, and levels of profession are balanced and work together.
- We do value and protect posters above users that comment. Reddit can be VERY harsh and the vast majority of that negativity is from comments. We're first and foremost a food sub and those creating, making, purchasing or working with food and posting it here add huge value to the sub. A 10 year old, kinda' not "okay" in this day and age, Tv quote as a "joke" on a post ... not so much.
Any other questions, again, let me know in the comments and I'll try to answer them. The wiki has also been updated with the new rules and has in-depth descriptions and examples for all the rules: https://www.reddit.com/r/food/wiki/index
“We also allow locations, who made it and noting attempts.”
Would you elaborate on this part please?
Does this allow for a title of “Aunt Darla’s third attempt at Red Lobster’s Cheddar Bay Biscuits”?
Kind of, although I don't think anyone really ever names the people. "My mom's first attempt at Molly Baz's Burnt Basque Cheesecake" would be something more likely and yeah, perfectly valid really. With a "[Homemade]" in there of course.
But so would "[I Ate] Missoltini and Risotto at XYZ on Lake Como, Italy".
When we change the title rules we usually get a few "slippery slopes" and extreme edge cases thrown at us by users. Then a few weeks later the place hasn't burnt down and titles are fine. A few people use the extra breathing room, less posts end up removed and it doesn't really impact the sub in a negative way.
I’m glad you’re going to temper down the instant bans, especially for something like “culture war comments,” as you say. I do think some of those cultural things (not the meme/insults) are intrinsically a part of food, the same way people like to argue that food “IS political.”
Yeah it's something we need to "hammer" down on internally and I'm most likely one of the big culprits there. Changes like this should also be top down anyway and I do want to set a better example.
For me personally, a large part is that we're all doing this in our spare time and with a lot of the comments it ends up being a "I won't want to deal with you button" and when it's impacting posters the last thing you want to see is that you've removed a comment, then later on the same person has just continued on going at it to the same OP or others. That and temp bans nearly always turn into either users hurling abuse from the get-go anyway or ignoring and just doing it again a day/week/month later. But overall, I do want to see ban numbers go down and we/I will work on that.
As for "food is political”, food nationalism can be and it's not a good part of politics using food as a tool. I do tend to just remove stuff like that anyway, but on the fringes people can get very angry over it.
As a mod on other subs, I completely agree. I am happy to lean into the discretionary “quality over chaos” rule (principle) and point at that 9 times out of 10.
Has there been any consideration towards disallowing photos that include pets? Or feet?
Were people doing low key foot fetish posts?
Sometimes you get the odd toes when people do a top-down photo of food on a counter. 90% of the time, same with animals, they're also out of focus. I don't fully understand the people that get super hooked up on it 🤷🏼♂️
It’s usually trolling or a complete lack of effort.
I’d prefer no living beings shown in posts here. No feet, no hands, no girlfriend across the table. No cute pets. It’s just a sub about food.
But that’s just how I feel and it’s ok to feel differently.
No .. but I also wouldn't go giving u/Turtleramem ideas about posting images with pets and also feet or even pet feet in photos.
In all seriousness we're on a journey of increasing what can be posted and expanding our level of inclusion, not the reverse. Pets and feet are pretty rare and even then take up a tiny part of a photo, just don't focus on them and move on with your day.
lol fair. I’m not big on banning things, just feel some posts aren’t focused on the subject.
Turtleramem is an excellent cook.
Weren't these changes made a long time ago? I'm not seeing anything different. Wish automod could auto delete bad titles. I report bad titles daily
The rule wording changed the weekend prior to last.
We did, at one point, automod a LOT of titles. But with it relaxing more and more, it's kind of hard to code automod (which is kind of a blunt tool) to know how to enforce that 50%. We have a few trigger words that nudge us to check posts, but that's kind of it.
Words like first attempt, first ever, the best, my sons/daughters/moms etc, the greatest or any listed age should all be filtered.
We've just changed the rules to allow that kind of stuff and either way, if the title is 50% specifically what the food is then it would be okay either way.
With stuff like this we really need to balance it. If we remove too much, Reddit sees us as being "less popular" compared to how many visitors we have / our subscriber count and we're shown less to new users. So it's a "it's not vital that we explicitly ban it, when it could then damage everyone posting to the sub" kind of situation.
When we were a default sub (every new user was auto-subbed to r/Food and other "defaults") we were strict and filtered a TON of stuff, because we had to, users were literally being forced into the community. But defaults aren't a thing and that level of filtering doesn't work for the health of the sub.
I can't go a week without seeing this kind of awful behavior here. Use the wrong kind of cheese or cook your beef the way you like it and you might as well be a serial killer. And then these same people whine when I give a harmless opinion like "I don't like raw onions." I had a guy literally throw a "last straw" tantrum at me because I said this here.
In short, this rule is not enforced. 😑
Although to be fair I skim this board seldomly anymore, so it could just be my bad luck.
This rule is heavily enforced and makes up the majority of our bans and removals. It's something we're always trying to improve on.
Does that mean that chive guy won't be able to perfect his craft? Or that we have to stop teasing him about it?
I think the chive guy posts to one of the "culinary" worded subs only. They don't post here, although they could very well post under [Produce] and get away with it. Votes would probably drop them down into negative territory here though.
Hey there, just re-discovering this sub from r/all. Is there a reason for the tags-in-title rule? To me it feels like it's cluttering up an otherwise descriptive title (in no small part because of the good title rules you guys have as well).
Just looking at the first page of this sub, every single post has an 'OC' flair. Is there a reason why "Homemade", "I Ate", etc. couldn't be flair instead?
It frames the post and what users can expect from the post. Not many people seem to notice but no one asks for recipes in [I Ate] posts, as they're purchased meals, but instead you'll see "where did you get that" style questions instead. Where as people will ask for recipes in [Homemade] posts.
The rest kind of just keep the tag theme consistent across all post types. Also bots realllly struggle with the bracketed tags so it keeps spam down. It's kind of our "thing" and keeps us different from other food subs.
OC is something else. It's an old system level "tag" that Reddit used to mark communities where all the content is original. It's not something users add or we add. It's also not a post flair or one of our bracketed tags.
I save all my recipes on an app. I would like to share the recipes with others. How do I go about getting this approved? I don't really understand the different user rules for the different groups on Reddit. I also don't understand how to make sure the image is not low quality before posting it. I simply take a picture with my cell phone. Sometimes when I upload it, the bot on various some Reddit will say that it's low quality. I don't understand this. I'm kind of a neophyte need some guidance from somewhere!
We can't really speak about other subs and how they filter stuff.
If the app looks spammy, like self promotion, or sketchy at all, then we most likely will not approve the links to it.
As for photo quality, I would Google some tips and tricks for food styling and photos.
Lastly, I would suggest keeping your recipes as text files. They won't suddenly vanish when an app closes down. A Google doc or other free document software will also serve you better than MS office in the long run.
Why have youtube videos been blocked? I don't mean to be a pain, but having to upload something all over again to reddit rather than just pasting the link to YouTube is a bit of a pain.
It's in the post and beast has mentioned one part, the other part is YouTube has a large financial incentive and chasing their algorithmic trends doesn't always encourage quality content. Also Reddit traffic is mostly via the app and you can't watch a YT video as an embed, it either opens the YT app or loads it the browser
Ahh fair, I didn't realise you couldn't do embedded playback on mobile, that must be a pita.
Probably because YouTube is also algorithmically powered so once you go to it just like with Tiktok and other platforms you might be there a while if it manages to suck you in.
But you don't need to leave Reddit itself to watch the video, it's just where the embed is linked from.
I have searched and cannot locate your white list for domain links.
The very first initial list was, when we were sourcing websites from users. Currently it is not public and not published. No one would view it and it's easier for users to try and post and for us to deal with the link afterwards.
So, it that how it works? I recently posted a link for Sopa de Ajo on the site *domain name removed* but it was automatically moderated and I deleted it. Would it have been investigated and possibly added to the white list? I have seen a lot of links to Serious Eats here in the past, is this whitelisted now?
If it matters, I would definitely look at the list before posting links.
If you delete it then it's removed from our mod queue and we then can't approve the link or consider it for whitelisting. We also haven't received a modmail asking for it to be whitelisted, so it also wouldn't be whitelisted through that pathway.
The message that you would have received stating to modmail us, not delete it:
Thank you for visiting r/food, unfortunately your comment has been removed. You have linked to a domain that is not on our domain whitelist. If this is your own webiste/blog, please see our rules and apply to have your domain white listed via our modmail. If it's a common recipe/food website but not your domain, please send us a modmail and we will review the comment. Please remember to distinguish to us if it's your own domain or not your own domain in any messages. Contact the moderators
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Um "Be nice" has been a rule for like 10+ years, it's not new and nor is it hard to follow.
Being elitist on a general food community is a you issue and not something we would be adopting.
I also don't think you understand that r/shittyfoodporn is about great food that just looks kind of bad. It's a celebration of food, not a place to slight others.
If your issue is that you can't insult people or act superior towards others (mind you, you have zero credentials and no food posted to Reddit ever in your entire account history) then your mentality doesn't mesh well with a ruleset aimed at the community being open and positive.
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You have 10 removals on record for being rude and elitist towards posters. So I'm not putting words in your mouth but basing it off how you contribute here and your issues with "be nice".
Correct there is very little we gate for quality or effort, because for a catch all food sub that would be petty. There is also a way to articulate feedback without being rude, something we have documented proof of you struggling with. People also aren't here for feedback by default, we're not r/ratemyfood and it's not our theme, the people that do want feedback actually ask for it.
Votes do most of the heavy work without us having rules over quality for the sake of being petty and elitist. Again, the rules haven't really changed here and the biggest one is videos, something totally unrelated to your problems.
When your ego and elitism is this large, having the credentials to back it up separates the actual chefs from the armchair critics..
I think I have a clear solution to this problem.
Looks good, thank you!
I’ll miss the chicken burger arguments. I feel like that’s part of Reddit, though I guess most people find it annoying. Ditto for grilled cheese and carbonara.