Just Eat's AI food-image tool put bacon and eggs in cola on a Northern Ireland restaurant's menu; Just Eat apologised
During a trial of a new AI service that auto-generates images of menu items, Just Eat's tool produced inaccurate pictures for a Northern Ireland restaurant. It showed sausages, bacon and fried eggs floating in pints of fizzy drinks instead of the Irish breakfast sandwiches they were meant to represent. Just Eat apologised, said it was removing the inaccurate images, and paused the rollout while it further develops the tool.
What the AI did
Just Eat's AI image tool, on trial to create pictures of menu items automatically, produced wrong images for a Northern Ireland restaurant's menu. Instead of Irish breakfast sandwiches, it showed sausages, bacon and fried eggs floating in pints of fizzy drinks.
First reported October 20, 2026 · Added to the register October 31, 2026 · 1 source
- Deployer
- Just Eat
- Affected
- A Northern Ireland restaurant offering soda breads
- Country
- United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)
- When it happened
- Not stated in the sources
- First reported
- October 20, 2026
What this means for you
Could this affect you?
If your restaurant is listed on Just Eat or you use AI to create product images. Restaurants on Just Eat whose menus received AI-generated images were exposed, as were customers ordering from those menus, who could be misled about what they were buying.
What to check
- Have a person check each AI-generated product or menu image before it is published.
- Let merchants approve or reject AI-generated images of their products.
- Label AI-generated images clearly so customers know they are not real photos.
- Look for subtle errors such as wrong portion sizes or missing toppings.
Areas of your AI programme this touches
Every fact and its source (3)
- Company apologyJust Eat apologised for the inaccurate images“We're sorry for any inaccurate images that have been posted.”[1]
- ResponseImages being removed and rollout paused“We're in the process of removing them and have paused rolling this out while we further develop the tool”[1]
- ContextThe images were part of a trial“These AI-generated images were part of a Just Eat trial for a new AI-powered system.”[1]
Sources
- Just Eat's AI put bacon and eggs in a glass of cola — and it's exposed a much bigger problem with AItechradar.com · October 20, 2026
How this record is classified. Severity M (1/5): harm to individuals, or a policy breach with limited reach. OECD level: incident, an event in which an AI system led to actual harm. Evidence: Confirmed, meaning a company, official or court statement.
The facts in At a glance and in Every fact and its source are quoted from the sources listed. The summary, What the AI did and What this means for you are written from those sources and checked against them automatically before publication. Records reflect what has been disclosed, not everything that has happened. Incidents are found through news feeds and the GDELT Project.
