You Should Know About the Unicode Consortium

The Unicode Consortium, whether you've heard of it or not, is the official body that regulates what emojis are added and their appearance, ensuring that they work on different devices. NPR reports that food and drinks account for just 82 of around 2,000 emojis approved by the Unicode Consortium. On Twitter, where millions of pizza slices have been sent by users, there's no sausage emoji, no emoji for chips, and a dearth of vegetables. There's a science to emojis that has frustrated a lot of food brands that feel that adding them should be as simple as buying a UPC code.

So what makes a great food emoji?  

Gedeon Maheux is the co-founder of The Iconfactory, which is behind many of Twitter and Facebook Messenger's versions of standard emojis.   

To design an emoji, Maheux tells NPR that you need the absolute minimum number of characteristics required to effectively communicate what that thing is. There's no text to help people understand whether that's a chestnut or an acorn. Plus space, color gradients and shading are all restricted, so making food look representative and appetizing is tricky. 

The emoji itself originated from Japan, and this is perhaps the biggest influence on the foodstuffs now available. In addition to pizza, which is considered a universal food item, there are emojis for ramen, sushi, numerous rice dishes and special Japanese desserts.

According to a recent report from Emogi, a messaging platform based around emojis, gifs and stickers, 75 percent of U.S. consumers are interested in having more emoji choices. "People want stronger emoji options across categories, including food — not just a coffee emoji, but specific drinks, not just food emoji, but specific restaurants or dishes," says Alexis Berger, Emogi's chief strategy officer.

Taco Bell successfully lobbied for a taco emoji. Could food and drink brands be the next big influence on the future of the emoji?