Hey Karen, thanks for the excellent and thought-provoking question! I never really thought about this in dept, but I would say there are a few things you can do.

1. Comparing flesh, skin to food requires extreme caution. It can come off as dehumanising, as making humans a commodity, sexual object..etc...

2. When you write about BIPOC the one foolproof way is to simply state their ethnicity. In our culture white is regarded as default, so before there is another norm we have to explicitly state when the person is not white.

3. Involve ethnic imagery. Let's say someone is from Ladakh. You can have them wearing silk, have tanned skin, wear turquoise jewellery.

From the top of my head these are the things I came up with! Hope it gives you food for thought and growth!