TikTok’s viral cucumber salad trend has reportedly caused a food shortage throughout Iceland.
Logan, who goes by logagm, went viral at the beginning of August as the ‘Cucumber Guy,’ largely thanks to his various cucumber salad recipes.
Using a whole cucumber, the foodie slices it into a bowl before adding various ingredients, which has the entire app rushing to the supermarket to make their own.
However, TikTokers in Iceland have put themselves into a pickle after flooding their grocery stores to get ahold of the crunchy veggie. One man, Daniel Sigthorsson, told the New York Times that he simply couldn’t find any.
“I was like, ‘That’s weird,’” he said. “That’s one of the things we never run out of in Iceland. And then I saw the news.”
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He’s not the only one who has trouble finding cucumbers. Icelandic News spoke with Kronan, one of the country’s biggest grocery chains. In a statement, the grocer confirmed that there has been a 200% increase in people looking for ingredients to make the trending recipe.
They’ve also seen an increase in people buying sesame oil, rice vinegar, and fish sauce—with the former being sold out in some stores—due to their popularity as additions to several viral recipes.
BBC News spoke with Kristín Linda Sveinsdóttir, the marketing director for Iceland’s Horticulturists’ Sales Company, who shared that they hope to get supply back to normal as quickly as possible. They also shared that if the trend took off earlier in 2024, the supply issue wouldn’t be as bad as it is in the country.
Grocery stores aren’t the only ones affected by the viral cucumber trend. On August 20, TikToker bechardgrave issued a warning about the dangers of slicing cucumbers after cutting her hand on a mandolin and ending up in the hospital.
