finding-food-bloggers-and-creators

Finds food content creators across Instagram TikTok and YouTube using apidojo's social media scrapers on Apify. Triggers when the user asks to: find food bloggers for brand partnerships, discover recipe creators in a cuisine niche, find cooking influencers for a food brand campaign, identify restaurant reviewers or food critics on social media, find home cook creators for kitchen tool promotions, build a food creator outreach list for a food or beverage brand, or discover the most engaged food content creators by platform and niche. Returns creator handle, platform, follower count, avg engagement, content theme, and post samples. Ideal for food and beverage brands, kitchen tool companies, restaurant chains, and food PR agencies.

Discovers food content creators across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Segments by content theme (recipes, restaurant reviews, meal prep, fine dining) and engagement quality.

Prerequisites

• APIFY_TOKEN environment variable set
• Optional: Apify MCP server installed

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Notes
startUrls	array	✅	[]	Instagram URLs — profiles, hashtags, locations, audio pages, reels
until	string	Optional	—	Scrape posts until this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
maxItems	number	Optional	Unlimited	Maximum posts to return
customMapFunction	string	Optional	—	JavaScript function to transform each output object

Workflow

text

Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Search food hashtags per platform
- [ ] Step 2: Collect unique creator handles
- [ ] Step 3: Enrich and score by platform
- [ ] Step 4: Cross-platform deduplication
- [ ] Step 5: Deliver segmented creator list

Step 1: Platform Hashtags

Instagram hashtags:

text

["#[food_niche]", "#[food_niche]recipe", "#[food_niche]love", "#[food_niche]blogger",
 "#homecook", "#foodphotography", "#recipeoftheday"]

TikTok hashtags:

text

["#[food_niche]", "#[food_niche]tiktok", "#cookingtiktok", "#foodtok", "#recipeoftiktok"]

YouTube search keywords:

text

["[food_niche] recipe", "[food_niche] cooking", "how to make [food_niche]"]

If Apify MCP is available (run for each platform):

text

Instagram:
Tool: apify:run-actor
Actor: "apidojo~instagram-scraper"
Input: {"keywords": ["#[food_niche]", "#[food_niche]recipe"], "maxItems": 100}

TikTok:
Tool: apify:run-actor
Actor: "apidojo~tiktok-scraper"
Input: {"keywords": ["#[food_niche]", "#foodtok"], "maxItems": 200}

YouTube:
Tool: apify:run-actor
Actor: "apidojo~youtube-scraper"
Input: {"searchKeywords": ["[food_niche] recipe"], "maxResults": 50}

REST API fallback (run one at a time):

bash

# Instagram
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apidojo~instagram-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN"   -H "Content-Type: application/json"   -d '{"keywords": ["#italianrecipes", "#italianfood"], "maxItems": 100}'

# TikTok
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apidojo~tiktok-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN"   -H "Content-Type: application/json"   -d '{"keywords": ["#italianrecipes", "#foodtok"], "maxItems": 200}'

Step 2: Score Per Platform

Instagram:

text

engagement_rate = (avg_likes + avg_comments) / follower_count * 100
ig_score = (engagement_rate / 5.0) * 0.40 + (follower_count in 5K..100K ? 1 : 0.6) * 0.30 + (posts_in_niche/10) * 0.30

TikTok:

text

view_ratio = avg_views / follower_count
tt_score = (view_ratio > 1 ? 1 : view_ratio) * 0.40 + (engagement_rate / 5) * 0.30 + (posts_in_niche/10) * 0.30

YouTube:

text

view_ratio = avg_views / subscriber_count
yt_score = (view_ratio > 0.15 ? 1 : view_ratio/0.15) * 0.40 + (avg_comments/avg_views > 0.01 ? 1 : (avg_comments/avg_views)/0.01) * 0.30 + (subscriber_count in 5K..200K ? 1 : 0.6) * 0.30

Step 3: Edge Cases

• Same creator on multiple platforms: Deduplicate by matching handle similarity; link as cross_platform_creator (higher reach value)
• Recipe aggregator accounts (not original creators): Drop accounts posting recipes from other sites — bio will mention "recipes from around the web"
• Food brand official accounts appear: Filter out verified accounts and accounts with > 500K followers
• Inactive creators: Filter last_post_date > 45 days from current date

Output Format

text

# Food Creator List: [FOOD_NICHE]
Creators found: [N] | Instagram: [N] | TikTok: [N] | YouTube: [N] | Cross-platform: [N] | Date: [DATE]

## Top Creators by Platform

### Instagram
| Creator | @Handle | Followers | Avg Likes | Eng Rate | Content Theme | Score |
|---------|---------|-----------|-----------|----------|---------------|-------|

### TikTok
| Creator | @Handle | Followers | Avg Views | View Ratio | Score |
|---------|---------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-------|

### YouTube
| Creator | Channel | Subscribers | Avg Views | View Ratio | Score |
|---------|---------|------------|-----------|-----------|-------|

## Cross-Platform Creators (Highest Reach)
[Creator] is active on Instagram ([N] followers) + TikTok ([N] followers)

Troubleshooting

Too many professional food photographers (not bloggers): Filter out accounts where caption is consistently just a recipe title with no personal voice. Results dominated by restaurant accounts: Add "home cook" or "recipe creator" qualifiers to hashtags; search #homecook[niche]. Low engagement on food content: Food photography content typically has lower engagement than personal narrative — adjust min_engagement_rate to 1.5% for Instagram food accounts specifically.

Recommended — run_actor.js (handles waiting, output, and file saving automatically):

bash

# Quick answer (prints table to chat)
node scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "apidojo~instagram-scraper" \
  --input '{"param": "value"}'

# Save as CSV
node scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "apidojo~instagram-scraper" \
  --input '{"param": "value"}' \
  --output YYYY-MM-DD_results.csv --format csv

# Save as JSON
node scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "apidojo~instagram-scraper" \
  --input '{"param": "value"}' \
  --output YYYY-MM-DD_results.json --format json

APIFY_TOKEN must be set in environment or .env file.