Zoe Barrie, a popular food influencer on TikTok, has recently gone viral for expressing her views on the proper way to season food. On March 15th, 2023, she posted a video in response to people in her comments using the term “Seasoning Police,” to describe people who don’t use enough herbs and spices to season their food.

By March 16, Barrie was heavily criticized on Twitter for using the term “seasoning police,” which some people saw as a derogatory euphemism for Black people. The viral nature of the video turned into people posting memes using the term “seasoning police” to refer to Black people and using a cutout image of Barrie in relation to Papa John, another popular chef who is known for using racial slurs.

In her response video she said that using fresh ingredients, such as sauteed garlic and onions, is the same as using the dehydrated powders most people use to season their meat and that salt is typically the only thing needed to season food. The video reached over 1.2 million views and gained 144,000 likes.

@zoebarrie Replying to @hudaam i will also bet that none of the best restaurants in the world are using powdered spices to flavor their food, respectfully #seasoning #cooking ♬ original sound - Zoe Barrie

People defended Barrie in the comments saying, “the people who cry about seasonings are the same people who put the same 5 seasonings on everything. Everything they eat tastes the same.”

Most were quick to comment, “but you need to season the chicken before you cook it,” and “dried seasonings have a different flavor profile that add to fresh vegetables, pls let’s not be dense.”

Since then, many videos on TikTok have gone viral of people showing off meat being cooked and calling attention to the fact that it is visibly underseasoned. Fresh vegetables don’t always cut it.