What Is Rat Snacking? The Food Trend Going Viral On TikTok

Forget girl dinner, try rat snacking. Not sure what it is? Here’s the rundown on the latest food trend going viral on TikTok. 

Rat Snacking: TikTok’s Newest Food Trend

There’s no denying it: we all have our own food fixations and strange culinary tendencies. 2023’s ‘girl dinner’ trend saw the most bizarre of these tendencies shared enthusiastically and without judgement, as TikTok users documented all kinds of incongruent elements (from cheese and fruit to crackers and baked beans) which they deemed to constitute a meal. And as the latest TikTok food trend, rat snacking is best described as an iteration of girl dinner.

What Is Rat Snacking?

To put it simply, rat snacking is the process of scrabbling around in your kitchen to find anything tasty enough to be a snack. Like girl dinner, the crucial part of rat snacking is that none of the components actually combine very well, but they likely satisfy a unique or unusual food craving – it’s all about convenient comfort food. Examples making the rounds on TikTok include rice cakes dipped in peanut butter, cauliflower drizzled with chilli sauce, and chocolate eaten alongside ready salted crisps. Whether you’re in desperate need of a food shop or you just want to indulge a culinary guilty pleasure, this rather wacky form of snacking is for you.

@eatkyoot Do you think this is weird #fyp #smallbusiness #chocolate #smallbrand #sustainable #vegan #ethical ♬ As It Was – Harry Styles

Why Is It Called This?

Rats, of course, are known to scrounge around and nibble on whatever they find, so the name is certainly apt. But rat snacking also points to a wider group of anti-aesthetic TikTok trends – trends that encourage us to embrace messiness, indulgence and rest. It all started with ‘goblin mode’, the trend that saw us unapologetically commit to staying in bed and bingeing entire seasons of TV shows. The latest version of that trend is bed rotting, while another culinary craze is the icky-sounding swamp soup. If you’re looking for a sign to abandon your commitment to a picture-perfect life, this is it.