Digital chameleons of the food environment: an exploratory analysis of the shapeshifting nature of dark kitchens in Australia and their regulatory challenges.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Dark kitchens are food service models that do not have a physical space for patrons and mostly sell through online food delivery services. Due to the low overhead costs and lack of customer facing premises, dark kitchens are transient systems with ability to open and close quickly and this is potentially facilitated by use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) for branding. This study aimed to characterise dark kitchens in Australia, assessing operational status of businesses, the nutritional quality of menu items; as well as identify and characterise use of AI in generation of menu content. METHODS: Dark kitchens in the Greater Sydney Region of New South Wales, Australia, were classified as outlets that had multiple brand names operating from one address on UberEats. Additional information was web-scraped including the opening status of the outlet, menu item names, descriptions, price and images. If dark kitchens had appeared closed on UberEats, we manually searched their brand names on DoorDash, to obtain additional data. Data on dark kitchens were summarised by descriptive analyses including percentages of cuisines, proportion of dark kitchens open by day and hour, frequency of menu items classified into food group categories. Menu item images were analysed for their potential use of AI by assessing distinct features that appear artificial or altered (e.g. image URL containing "altered" or "enhanced"). RESULTS: Over a third of dark kitchen brands (n = 98, 33.1%) had temporarily or permanently closed since the initial dataset was web-scraped in 2023. We subsequently identified 197 unique dark kitchen brands still in operation. Over 70% of total menu items were comprised of unhealthy foods including fries, fried chicken and desserts. Additionally, over 57% (n = 1939/3376) of menu item images contained "enhanced image" or "image touchup" in their URLs, indicating enhancement or alteration of food images using AI. CONCLUSION: Dark kitchens present a new challenge to digital food environments. Data from this study showed multiple brands delivering from one address and provide evidence that these "kitchen chameleons" predominantly offer fried, unhealthy foods and use AI in menu item content. Adaptive monitoring is needed to inform and develop policy to minimise their potential risks to public health.