We tested 1,500 queries across 5 AI engines, 18 food & CPG brands, and 2 languages (EN/ES) to discover which brands dominate AI recommendations — and which ones are invisible. Presented at POSSIBLE 2026.
Kraft Heinz leads 2 of 5 engines, while its subsidiary Heinz leads Gemini. Together, the Kraft Heinz portfolio dominates recipe AI like no other food conglomerate. McCormick's spice authority gives Perplexity a different perspective.
Kraft Heinz's dominance reflects how deeply embedded condiment and pantry staple brands are in recipe content. When AI engines are asked "what should I use?", they recommend what decades of recipe content have trained them on.
Each brand's AI Visibility Score (0–100) measures how often it appears across 1,500 queries. The gap between digital-native brands and legacy names tells a clear story about what AI values.
Visibility Score = % of queries where the brand was mentioned by AI engines. Higher is better.
Recipe and food brands show the most dramatic language splits of any AIVO study. Hispanic/LATAM brands surge in Spanish while American pantry staples lose ground.
Hispanic food brands (Goya +61%, Valentina +118%, Maseca +118%) see massive visibility spikes in Spanish. Meanwhile, American pantry brands (Kraft Heinz -24%, Campbell's -33%, Hidden Valley -43%) lose ground. AI engines draw from entirely different recipe ecosystems per language.
Each AI engine brings a distinct perspective to recipe recommendations. OpenAI is the most generous (1,078 mentions), while Google AIO is the most selective.
Regional and specialty food brands with strong real-world market share barely register in AI recipe recommendations.
Brands like Cholula (223) and Tajín (267) are cultural icons with massive shelf presence, yet AI engines rarely recommend them. Even Maggi (298), a global Nestlé brand, can't crack the top half.
Before running the study, we set 4 hypotheses about food & CPG AI visibility. Here's how they held up against 1,500 data points.
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