AIFoPa-2026-0046
Date of Record: 20 Oct 2026
3 min read
Every Image Was Checked by a Person
In October 2026, Just Eat paused a trial in which an AI tool drew menu photographs for small UK and Irish takeaways from the wording of each menu.
Restaurants in Northern Ireland sell soda bread sandwiches. A soda is a breakfast sandwich made with soda bread. One menu on Just Eat listed a Breakfast Soda. Just Eat is a food delivery app.
Some restaurants on the app have no photographs of their food. For these, Just Eat ran a trial of an AI image tool. The tool used the text of each menu item as its prompt. A prompt is the written instruction that the tool draws from. The app labelled each result as AI-generated.
The tool read the words Breakfast Soda. It drew a glass of cola. A fried egg and sausages floated in the cola. The tool had used both words.
The tool made other images on the same principle. A Garlic Bread Plane became an aeroplane made of bread. A pot of Burger Sauce contained a small burger. A sauvignon blanc listing mentioned watermelon in its flavour notes. The tool put chunks of watermelon in the wine.
Salt and pepper chips are a Chinese takeaway dish. They normally include fried onions, chilli and peppers. The tool drew blandly seasoned potato snacks. A vegetarian cheddar cheese option became an orange sauce like fondue.
The Journal, an Irish news site, found more images on Irish takeaway menus. Scampi is a deep-fried fish dish. The tool drew it as sushi. A batter burger appeared as a beef burger between two battered buns. A doner kebab appeared as its flatbread ingredients, unassembled, on a plate.
A smoked cod listing mentioned wheat flour. The tool drew a fish fillet with loose flour on top. Just Eat told The Journal that a person checks every AI image by hand. The fish under the flour passed this check.
Customers shared the images on social media. One customer called the Breakfast Soda image “the actual worst thing I’ve ever seen”. Just Eat paused the trial and began to remove the images. A spokesperson said, “We’re sorry for any inaccurate images that have been posted.”
Just Eat does not let restaurants upload their own AI-generated images. The company told The Journal it wants to keep use of the technology tightly controlled. Restaurants may opt out of the trial at any time. Only Just Eat may put watermelon in the wine.
The Bureau has filed the incident under a new classification, Menu Text Rendered Literally. The tool remains in development.