Of course, it certainly helps to have a food product that resembles actual food to begin with, but even with something as innocuous and seemingly fool-proof as, say, ice cream for example, there's a lot of prep work, and "beautification" of the product that goes on before the camera even starts snapping.

I was a bit shocked to discover that most of the ice cream you see on packaging isn't even real ice cream, which of course quickly melts into a puddle of unappetizing glop under set and camera lights, but rather is generally some sort of dough-like substance, colored and textured to look like a bowl of freshly scooped ice cream.

And then there's all the fluffing (yes, there are "food fluffers"), sculpting, and oh-so-precise placement of accoutrements; each and every chocolate chip, or strawberry slice delicately and strategically arranged to create a maximum aesthetic appeal for the product.

In the end, the only thing that really matters is that the picture on the package makes you want to put the product in your cart and take it all the way to the check-out; what it looks like after you get home, is frankly, almost irrelevent. Because, what are you going to do? Throw it out just because it looks worse than the package?

My own experience with food stylists has taught me that the moist sheen that cooked products have in promo shots is very often honey that's been applied with a paintbrush.

Yeah, I've also seen them use glycerin/glycerol or even a water-and-corn starch mixture. I once watched our Product Testing Manager apply individual beads of "condensation sweat" onto a scoop of "ice cream" with an eye dropper, in order to get them in just the right spots to catch the light from the camera strobes.

Basically, they'll do whatever it takes to make the product look fresh, even after it's been sitting on a counter under high-wattage studio lighting for several hours.

http://pundo3000.com/htms/31.htm

Ummm...if you find yourself disappointed that your prepackaged herring chunks with beet bits (god please let those be beets) salad doesn't look as awesome in person as on the package, I think the real problem lies with your choice of foodstuffs rather than with the company that created the packaging.

And for what it's worth, you can actually see through this packaging.

@Jiminy ... when herring looks like the fish on the package, it is quite delicious.