I've always thought this was inspired by the depiction of food in earlier arcade games like Bubble Bobble.

And Castlevania [1] (also from 1986) and don't forget about Pac-man, who probably started it all :)

[1] https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Food

And (Kirby's) Gourmet Race with its food sprites, the clear ancestor of all the Kirby racing games... and from the same designer.

Even if its sprites are not photo-realistic, I am bit surprised it was excluded from TFA.

I would love to see a list of inspirations for keeping the food 2D even in a 3D environment! Pacman or Bubble Bobble seem like good places to start.