From Bake Off’s beautiful buns to Instagram foodies posting pictures of their plates – digitally enhanced images of divine-looking dishes are everywhere. Professor Charles Spence, who studies visual hunger, explains to Canvas8 how these images affect our appetites.

BuzzFeed’s cooking channel Tasty is feeding the internet's appetite for comfort food with its immensely popular recipe videos. It’s attracted nearly 62 million likes on Facebook and gained 14 billion video views in just under a year, but what’s the secret to its success?

When it comes to food, it’s all about flavour – right? Canvas8 spoke to Charles Spence, the psychologist behind ‘gastrophysics’, to discover how all senses impact on how we taste and to find out how brands are using packaging, colour and sound to radically alter our flavour experiences.

In the US, the fast food industry is under an unprecedented amount of pressure from fast casual chains and increasingly health-conscious consumption. How has Burger King’s Mac n’ Cheetos – a Frankenfood snack of fried cheese sticks dusted in Cheetos flavouring – gained success in this tough market?