Hamburgers have been popular in Australia for a long time. Like the rest of the world, we were seduced in the 70's when McDonald's and Hungry Jacks came to town. Whilst it didn't take us long to realise this wasn't the healthiest choice, it didn't stop the hamburger appearing on menus everywhere. 

There is something about the ease of hamburger that keeps drawing us back. It's relatively cheap and is a casual, easy meal that you can eat with your hands. It teams beautifully with a side of fries, beer or coke. It's equally enjoyable when shared with your bestie, out for a family treat or a quick lunch meeting.

Thankfully in the last 10 years we have seen the burger industry diversify. It has the ability to follow every food trend, burgers can become gourmet, healthy, gluten free, vegan, low carb, whatever is trending at the time. All while remaining the perfect "treat meal" and maintaining their hipness. 

That is where toothpicks can help you out logistically and obviously with your marketing. With so many burgers shops and food vans opening, you want your burger range to be instantly recognisable. You need to let the customer know what makes your hamburger different from the rest. 

Success stories such as Grilled got their branding and packaging right, and then let social media do the rest. By using a toothpick in every single burger, they created brand awareness. There was also an expectation that the burger would be layered with delicious ingredients that were cleverly held together with a large toothpick making it a visual master piece. 

Toothpicks are also your friend if you are the one creating the burger. When you're working in a busy kitchen a toothpick is an easy way to "label" the burger and make it easily recognisable to the customer. Obviously if you have ordered your patty well done there is nothing more annoying than biting into your friends medium rare. On a more serious note, you want your burgers that cater to allergy and dietary needs to be instantly identified. 

Speed and presentation are also more achievable with toothpicks, whether it's a platter of bite size cheese burgers or a triple stacked wagyu burger. Simply using the correct size toothpick will mean your product will look as attractive when  presented to your customer as it does in the promo shot. It also gives your customer the opportunity to do some marketing for you if they choose to post some happy snaps. 

Food trends will continue to come and go but I think we have a long wait before we see the popularity of the hamburger die off. Make sure you are marketing your burger to its full potential so that unique taste you create reaches every single burger lover.