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Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus origin and contains essential nutrients such as , , proteins, , or minerals. The substance is Ingestion by an organism and assimilated by the organism's cells to provide energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth. Different species of animals have different feeding behaviours that satisfy the needs of their and have evolved to fill a specific ecological niche within specific geographical contexts.
Omnivore humans are highly adaptable and have adapted to obtaining food in many different ecosystems. Humans generally use cooking to prepare food for consumption. The majority of the food energy required is supplied by the industrial food industry, which produces food through intensive agriculture and distributes it through complex food processing and food distribution systems. This system of conventional agriculture relies heavily on , which means that the food and agricultural systems are one of the major contributors to climate change, accounting for as much as 37% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
The food system has a significant impact on a wide range of other social and political issues, including sustainability, biological diversity, economics, population growth, water supply, and food security. Food safety and security are monitored by international agencies, like the International Association for Food Protection, the World Resources Institute, the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Food Information Council.
Human food can be classified in various ways, either by related content or by how it is processed. The number and composition of can vary. Most systems include four basic groups that describe their origin and relative nutritional function: Vegetables and Fruit, Cereals and Bread, Dairy, and Meat.
Studies that look into diet quality group food into whole grains/cereals, refined grains/cereals, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, eggs, dairy products, fish, red meat, processed meat, and sugar-sweetened beverages. The Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization use a system with nineteen food classifications: cereals, roots, pulses and nuts, milk, eggs, fish and shellfish, meat, insects, vegetables, fruits, fats and oils, sweets and sugars, spices and condiments, beverages, foods for nutritional uses, food additives, composite dishes and savory snacks.
Humans are omnivores, finding sustenance in vegetables, fruits, cooked meat, milk, eggs, mushrooms and seaweed. Cereal grain is a staple food that provides more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop. Maize, wheat, and rice account for 87% of all grain production worldwide.
Just over half of the world's crops are used to feed humans (55 percent), with 36 percent grown as animal feed and 9 percent for biofuels. Fungi and bacteria are also used in the preparation of fermented foods like bread, wine, cheese and yogurt.
Plant nutrition and minerals from the air, natural waters, and soil.
In the marine environment, plankton (which includes bacteria, archaea, algae, protozoa and microscopic fungi) provide a crucial source of food to many small and large aquatic organisms.
Without bacteria, life would scarcely exist because bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen into nutritious ammonia. Ammonia is the precursor to proteins, nucleic acids, and most vitamins. Since the advent of the industrial process for nitrogen fixation, the Haber-Bosch Process, the majority of ammonia in the world is human-made.
Fleshy fruits (distinguishable from dry fruits like grain, seeds and nuts) can be further classified as stone fruits (cherries and peaches), Pome (apples, pears), Berry (blackberry, strawberry), citrus (oranges, lemon), (watermelon, cantaloupe), Mediterranean fruits (grapes, fig), tropical fruits (banana, pineapple). Vegetables refer to any other part of the plant that can be eaten, including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, bark or the entire plant itself. These include (potatoes and carrots), bulbs (onion family), flowers (cauliflower and broccoli), (spinach and lettuce) and stem vegetables (celery and asparagus).
The carbohydrate, protein and lipid content of plants is highly variable. Carbohydrates are mainly in the form of starch, fructose, glucose and other sugars. Most vitamins are found from plant sources, with the exception of vitamin D and vitamin B12. Minerals can also be plentiful or not. Fruit can consist of up to 90% water, contain high levels of simple sugars that contribute to their sweet taste, and have a high vitamin C content. Compared to fleshy fruit (excepting Bananas) vegetables are high in starch, potassium, dietary fiber, folate and vitamins and low in fat and calories. Grains are more starch based and nuts have a high protein, fiber, vitamin E and B content. Seeds are a good source of food for animals because they are abundant and contain fiber and healthful fats, such as omega-3 fats. Complicated chemical interactions can enhance or depress bioavailability of certain nutrients. Phytates can prevent the release of some sugars and vitamins.
Animals that only eat plants are called , with those that mostly just eat fruits known as , while leaf and shoot eaters are (pandas) and wood eaters termed Xylophagy (termites). include a diverse range of species from annelids to elephants, chimpanzees and many birds.
About 182 fish consume seeds or fruit. Animals (domesticated and wild) use as many types of grasses that have adapted to different locations as their main source of nutrients.Humans eat thousands of plant species; there may be as many as 75,000 edible species of , of which perhaps 7,000 are often eaten. Plants can be processed into breads, pasta, cereals, juices and jams or raw ingredients such as sugar, herbs, spices and oils can be extracted. are pressed to produce rich oilsSunflower oil, flaxseed, rapeseed (including canola oil) and Sesame oil.McGee, Chapter 9.
Many plants and animals have coevolution in such a way that the fruit is a good source of nutrition for the animal, who then excretes the seeds some distance away, allowing greater dispersal. Even seed predation can be mutually beneficial, as some seeds can survive the digestion process. Insects are major eaters of seeds, with ants being the only real seed dispersers.
Birds, although being major dispersers, only rarely eat seeds as a source of food and can be identified by their thick beak that is used to crack open the seed coat. Mammals eat a more diverse range of seeds, as they are able to crush harder and larger seeds with their teeth.
Food products produced by animals include milk produced by mammary glands, which in many cultures is drunk or processed into (cheese, butter, etc.). Eggs laid by birds and other animals are eaten and produce honey, a reduced nectar from flowers that is used as a popular sweetener in many cultures. Some cultures consume blood, such as in blood sausage, as a thickener for sauces, or in a cured, salted form for times of food scarcity, and others use blood in stews such as jugging.Davidson, 81–82.
Sweetness is almost always caused by a type of simple sugar such as glucose or fructose, or disaccharides such as sucrose, a molecule combining glucose and fructose.New Oxford American Dictionary Sourness is caused by , such as vinegar in alcoholic beverages. Sour foods include citrus, specifically lemons and limes. Sour is evolutionarily significant as it can signal a food that may have gone rancidity due to bacteria.States "having an acid taste like lemon or vinegar: she sampled the wine and found it was sour. (of food, esp. milk) spoiled because of fermentation." New Oxford American Dictionary Saltiness is the taste of alkali metal ions such as sodium and potassium. It is found in almost every food in low to moderate proportions to enhance flavor. Bitter taste is a sensation considered unpleasant characterised by having a sharp, pungent taste. Unsweetened dark chocolate, caffeine, lemon rind, and some types of fruit are known to be bitter. Umami, commonly described as savory, is a marker of proteins and characteristic of broths and cooked meats. Foods that have a strong umami flavor include cheese, meat and mushrooms.
While most animals taste buds are located in their mouth, some insects taste receptors are located on their legs and some fish have taste buds along their entire body. Dogs, cats and birds have relatively few taste buds (chickens have about 30), adult humans have between 2000 and 4000, while catfish can have more than a million. Herbivores generally have more than carnivores as they need to tell which plants may be poisonous. Not all share the same tastes: some can taste starch, cats cannot taste sweetness, and several carnivores (including , dolphins, and sea lions) have lost the ability to sense up to four of the five taste modalities found in humans.
A 2003 World Health Organization (WHO) report concluded that about 30% of reported food poisoning outbreaks in the WHO European Region occur in private homes. According to the WHO and CDC, in the US alone, annually, there are 76 million cases of foodborne illness leading to 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.
From 2011 to 2016, on average, there were 668,673 cases of foodborne illness and 21 deaths each year. In addition, during this period, 1,007 food poisoning outbreaks with 30,395 cases of food poisoning were reported.
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