The new food emojis to expect in 2017

On the international list titled "why isn't this a thing already?", a pie emoji is right up there. Somewhere between compulsory Sherlock Holmes hats for dachshunds and grape-flavoured ice-cream.

That list might become at least one item shorter in the near future, however, with the nerd gods at Unicode announcing delicious pie as a possibility for picture text stardom.

The Unicode Consortium (that's the non-profit organisation enabling the world to communicate via cute symbols) released its Unicode 10 proposal last week with 51 new emojis including a flying saucer, tyrannosaurus rex, zombie, hedgehog, merman (thanks, Zoolander), "person in steamy room" and socks.

The proposed new food emojis are:

• Bowl with spoon (suitable for either congee or breakfast cereal)
• Cup with straw
• Coconut
• Broccoli
• Pretzel
• Cut of meat (by which they mean steak)
• Sandwich
• Canned food
• Pie

These join four Chinese food-related emoji candidates announced in February - a dumpling, fortune cookie, takeout box and chopsticks.

The proposal stipulates the pie can be either sweet or savoury. Fingers crossed for a Four'N Twenty with tomato sauce, Australia. There are no specifications provided for the sandwich. Egg and lettuce? Chicken and mayonnaise? Devon and tomato sauce? The possibilities are endless.

It will be at least 12 months before we see steak, sandwich and pie and emojis. Before they can be designed and released by operating system makers such as Apple and Google, the new characters must be officially encoded into the emoji standard. This is not an overnight process.

To satisfy iPhone users' hunger for new food emojis in the meantime, Unicode 9.0 is due for release with iOS 10.2 and predicted to drop in December. (Google already supports Unicode 9.0 with Android 7.0 Nougat.)

New food-related emojis in iOS 10.2 include:

• Shrimp (fresher than the existing fried version)
• Squid
• Kiwifruit
• Avocado (about time)
• Potato
• Carrot
• Cucumber
• Peanuts
• Croissant
• Baguette
• Pancakes
• Bacon (also about time)
• Egg
• Stuffed flatbread
• Shallow pan of food (it's more or less paella)
• Green salad
• Glass of milk
• Clinking champagne glasses
• Tumbler glass (great for whisky)
• Spoon

There's also a deer emoji in the new release. "Do you feel like venison or pancakes for dinner?" will be much easier to write.

Now where's that chicken parmigiana emoji we've been asking for?