Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism's cells in an effort to produce energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth.
Historically, people secured food through two methods: hunting and gathering, and agriculture. Today, most of the food energy consumed by the world population is supplied by the food industry.
Food safety and food security are monitored by agencies like the International Association for Food Protection, World Resources Institute, World Food Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization, and International Food Information Council. They address issues such as sustainability, biological diversity, climate change, nutritional economics, population growth, water supply, and access to food.
The right to food is a human right derived from the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), recognizing the "right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food", as well as the "fundamental right to be free from hunger".
Read more about Food: Food Sources, Production, Taste Perception, Cuisine, Famine and Hunger, Safety, Nutrition and Dietary Problems, Legal Definition, Types of Food
Other articles related to "food, foods":
... In industrial and food applications, radiation is used for sterilization of tools and equipment ... An emerging use in food production is the sterilization of food using food irradiation ... Food irradiation is the process of exposing food to ionizing radiation in order to destroy microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, or insects that might be present ...
... Baking is a food cooking method using prolonged dry heat acting by convection, and not by thermal radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot ... When the desired temperature is reached within the heating instrument, the food is placed inside and baked for a certain amount of time ... pasta dishes such as lasagna, and various other foods, such as the pretzel ...
... Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly ... While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer ... The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951 ...
... house-elves at Hogwarts amongst other duties provide all food to students and staff ... At meal times the food is magically transported up, giving the façade of appearing for the students ... The majority of the food prepared are traditional British dishes ...
... Comfort food Fast food Junk food Natural food Organic food Slow food Whole food ...
Famous quotes containing the word food:
“Eclecticism is the degree zero of contemporary general culture: one listens to reggae, watches a western, eats McDonald’s food for lunch and local cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo and “retro” clothes in Hong Kong; knowledge is a matter for TV games. It is easy to find a public for eclectic works.”
—Jean François Lyotard (b. 1924)
“For much of the female half of the world, food is the first signal of our inferiority. It lets us know that our own families may consider female bodies to be less deserving, less needy, less valuable.”
—Gloria Steinem (b. 1934)
“There is such a thing as food and such a thing as poison. But the damage done by those who pass off poison as food is far less than that done by those who generation after generation convince people that food is poison.”
—Paul Goodman (1911–1972)