Deliveroo Food Photography: Specs, Shots and Crops

What Deliveroo actually publishes for images

Deliveroo does publish pixel specs, so you can plan shoots around them rather than guessing. Menu item images should be landscape and at least 1200 x 675 px. Deliveroo crops item images to 1:1, so the whole dish must fit inside a centered square. Hero images should be landscape at least 1920 x 1080 px, must work in both the 16:9 layout and the 3:2 store-page layout, and must show at least 5 different dishes. Files are JPEG, up to 8 MB.

The rules are as concrete as the specs. One dish, centered, clearly showing its ingredients, on a clean background. Natural light without reflections or dark shadows, shot side-on at about 45 degrees for burgers and cakes. No hands, faces or people; no text, watermarks or overlays; no collages. No raw ingredients scattered around the dish. No AI-generated images: Deliveroo asks for authentic photos of your own food. Only images you own or have rights to; stock or search-engine images are not accepted. Label each file with the dish name.

• Item images: landscape, at least 1200 x 675 px, whole dish inside a centered 1:1 crop
• Hero images: landscape, at least 1920 x 1080 px, readable at 16:9 and 3:2, at least 5 dishes
• Format: JPEG, up to 8 MB
• One dish, centered, clean background, natural light, about 45 degrees for burgers and cakes
• No people, hands, text, watermarks, collages or scattered raw ingredients
• Real photos of your own food only; no AI-generated images, no stock

Plan the shoot around the 1:1 crop first

Because Deliveroo crops item images to 1:1, the square is the frame that matters, not the wide file you upload. Tape a square outline on your monitor or use a camera grid so the dish sits inside it with a small margin. If a pizza or a sharing platter is wider than the square, shoot from higher up so the whole dish fits, or split the item into two menu entries rather than letting the edges get cut.

Shoot landscape at 1200 x 675 px or larger so you have room to crop. A phone on a tripod at chest height, angled down about 45 degrees, gives you the side-on look Deliveroo asks for on burgers and cakes while keeping the full plate in frame. For soups, curries and bowls, a slightly steeper angle shows the surface and the ingredients inside. Keep the background plain: a clean countertop, a neutral board or a plain wall. Remove packaging, bottles, cloths and the second plate that always drifts into frame.

Light and styling that pass review

Deliveroo asks for natural light without reflections or dark shadows. Put the dish beside a window, not in direct sun, and turn off overhead tungsten or fluorescent lights that cast a color shift. A white sheet of paper or a foam board on the opposite side bounces light back into the shadow side. For glossy sauces, soups and drinks, tilt the dish slightly or move your position until the reflection moves off the surface; a polarizing filter on a camera helps, but repositioning is usually enough.

Style the dish the way it leaves your kitchen. Deliveroo wants the ingredients visible, so let the protein, garnish and sauce show rather than burying them under a lid of herbs. No raw ingredients scattered around the plate, no hands arranging the food, no props that suggest a portion you do not serve. Wipe the rim, check for drips on the board and shoot several frames per dish: one centered wide shot, one closer shot that still fits the square, and one for the hero set. Name every file with the dish name before upload, for example margherita-pizza.jpg.

Hero images and the two layouts

The hero image is a separate job from the menu item shots. It needs to be at least 1920 x 1080 px, landscape, and it has to survive both the 16:9 layout and the 3:2 store-page layout. That means keeping the important dishes away from the far left and right edges, because the 3:2 crop trims the sides. Compose a spread of at least 5 different dishes with the most recognizable item near the center, and check the frame at both ratios before you upload.

For a restaurant with a large menu, build the hero from your best-selling or most visually distinct dishes rather than five near-identical plates. A burger, a salad, a pasta, a dessert and a drink read as a menu at a glance; five variations of the same bowl do not. Shoot the hero in the same session and light as the item images so the store page looks consistent.

Review pitfalls and what to do when an image is rejected

Most rejections come from breaking a published rule rather than from image quality. The common ones: a stock or search-engine photo, a collage, a text overlay or logo, a hand holding the dish, a file named IMG_2043.jpg, or an image that looks generated or heavily altered. Deliveroo does not accept AI-generated images, so upload your own real photograph of the dish you actually serve. If an image is rejected, check it against the published list first, then reshoot rather than editing around the problem.

Keep your own archive of approved originals at full resolution. When a dish changes, reshoot it and replace the file with the same naming pattern so you can trace which version is live. If you are unsure whether a file meets the current spec, check the upload screen in your Deliveroo partner portal, since that is where the live requirements are enforced. For your own channels, such as your website menu, Instagram, a QR menu or print, FoodPhoto takes a real photo of your own dish and improves light, background and crop, and every photo comes as a kit of sizes. Deliveroo itself requires your own real photo, so that is what you upload there.