Polygon has compiled a list of the most stomach-churning food items found in video games, highlighting how developers occasionally use their design skills to create deliberately unappetising virtual meals rather than tempting ones. The feature celebrates these grotesque details as memorable moments of world-building or dark humour, even though the foods typically serve a practical gameplay purpose, such as restoring health or boosting stats.

Examples include Fallout's radroach meat, which heals the player while raising radiation levels, and Final Fantasy 15's cake baked from a "Killer Tomato" enemy. Death Stranding features Sam Porter Bridges eating wriggling alien creatures raw for an instant stamina boost, while Xenoblade Chronicles 2's character Mythra prepares a "Literally Killer Tart" from cicadas, scorpions and other insects. The Castlevania series also features unexplained chunks of meat embedded in dungeon walls, which restore health when eaten despite their bizarre and unexplained origin.