Portal:Food

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Food waste in the United Kingdom is a subject of environmental, and socioeconomic concern that has received widespread media coverage and been met with varying responses from government. Since 1915, food waste has been identified as a considerable problem and has been the subject of ongoing media attention, intensifying with the launch of the "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign in 2007. Food waste has been discussed in newspaper articles, news reports and television programmes, which have increased awareness of it as a public issue. To tackle waste issues, encompassing food waste, the government-funded "Waste & Resources Action Programme" (WRAP) was created in 2000.

A significant proportion of food waste is produced by the domestic household, which in 2022, created 6.4 million tonnes of food waste (95kg or £250 per person); most of this was made up of salads and fresh vegetables. A majority of food waste food is avoidable,^[d] with the rest being divided almost equally into foods which are unavoidable, due to being inedible (e.g. tea bags) and those that are unavoidable due to preference (e.g. bread crusts) or cooking type (e.g. potato skins). (Full article...)

World food prices increased dramatically in 2007 and the first and second quarter of 2008, creating a global crisis and causing political and economic instability and social unrest in both poor and developed nations. Although the media spotlight focused on the riots that ensued in the face of high prices, the ongoing crisis of food insecurity had been years in the making. Systemic causes for the worldwide increases in food prices continue to be the subject of debate. After peaking in the second quarter of 2008, prices fell dramatically during the late-2000s recession but increased during late 2009 and 2010, reaching new heights in 2011 and 2012 (see 2010–2012 world food price crisis) at a level slightly higher than the level reached in 2008. Over the next years, prices fell, reaching a low in March 2016 with the deflated Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) food price index close to the pre-crisis level of 2006.

The initial causes of the late-2006 price spikes included droughts in grain-producing nations and rising oil prices. Oil price increases also caused general escalations in the costs of fertilizers, food transportation, and industrial agriculture. Root causes may be the increasing use of biofuels in developed countries (see also food vs fuel), and an increasing demand for a more varied diet across the expanding middle-class populations of Asia. The FAO also raised concerns about the role of hedge funds speculating on prices leading to major shifts in prices. These factors, coupled with falling world-food stockpiles, all contributed to the worldwide rise in food prices. (Full article...)

Taiwanese cuisine (Chinese: 臺灣料理; pinyin: Táiwān liàolǐ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-oân liāu-lí or 臺灣菜; Táiwāncài; Tâi-oân-chhài) is a popular style of food with several variations, including Chinese and that of Taiwanese indigenous peoples, with the earliest cuisines known of being the indigenous ones. With over a hundred years of historical development, southern Fujian cuisine has had the most profound impact on mainstream Taiwanese cuisine but it has also been influenced by Hakka cuisine, the cuisines of the waishengren (people of other provinces), and Japanese cuisine.

Taiwan's cuisine is tied to its history of colonization and modern politics makes the description of Taiwanese cuisine difficult. As Taiwan developed economically, fine dining became increasingly popular. Taiwanese cuisine has significant regional variations. (Full article...)

Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as rock salt or halite. Salt is essential for life in general (being the source of the essential dietary minerals sodium and chlorine), and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and is known to uniformly improve the taste perception of food. Salting, brining, and pickling are ancient and important methods of food preservation.

Some of the earliest evidence of salt processing dates to around 6000 BC, when people living in the area of present-day Romania boiled spring water to extract salts; a salt works in China dates to approximately the same period. Salt was prized by the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Hittites, Egyptians, and Indians. Salt became an important article of trade and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea, along specially built salt roads, and across the Sahara on camel caravans. The scarcity and universal need for salt have led nations to go to war over it and use it to raise tax revenues, for instance triggering the El Paso Salt War which took place in El Paso in the late 1860s. Salt is used in religious ceremonies and has other cultural and traditional significance. (Full article...)

Paella (/paɪˈɛlə/ py-EL-ə, /pɑːˈeɪjə/ pah-AY-yə; Valencian: [paˈeʎa]; Spanish: [paˈeʎa] or [paˈeʝa]) is a rice dish originally from the Valencian Community. Paella is regarded as one of the community's identifying symbols. It is one of the best-known dishes in Spanish cuisine.

There are three versions of paella: paella valenciana, which includes rabbit, chicken, duck, and snails; paella mixta, which includes livestock; and paella de marisco, which includes seafood. Valencians claim that only the recipe for paella valenciana is the true paella. (Full article...)

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The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. Conceived by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug and established in 1986 through the support of General Foods, the prize is envisioned and promoted as the Nobel or the highest honors in the field of food and agriculture. It is now administered by the World Food Prize Foundation with support from numerous sponsors. Since 1987, the prize has been awarded annually to recognize contributions in any field involved in the world food supply, such as animal science, aquaculture, soil science, water conservation, nutrition, health, plant science, seed science, plant pathology, crop protection, food technology, food safety, policy, research, infrastructure, emergency relief, and poverty alleviation and hunger.

Laureates are honored and officially awarded their prize in Des Moines, Iowa, in an award ceremony held at the Iowa State Capitol. Laureates are presented with a diploma, a commemorative sculpture designed by Saul Bass and a monetary award of $500,000. (Full article...)

Marie-Antoine Carême
B. June 8, 1784 – d. January 12, 1833

Marie-Antoine Carême (French: [maʁi ɑ̃twan kaʁɛːm]; 8 June 1783 or 1784 – 12 January 1833), also known as Antonin Carême, was a French chef and author who specialised in grande cuisine for the elite society.

Carême was born in Paris to a poor family and, when still a child, worked in a cheap restaurant. Later he became an apprentice to a leading Parisian pâtissier and quickly became known for his patisserie skills. He was deeply interested in architecture and was famous for his large pièces montées – table decorations sculpted in sugar, depicting classical buildings. (Full article...)

• ... that Stephanie of Milly reportedly sent food to Saladin as he bombarded her castle during her son's wedding?
• ... that Turkish migrant workers living in a residential complex in Amsterdam refused to eat the Dutch food for two weeks after the kitchen's only Turkish chef was fired?
• ... that characters' scars in an episode of The Last of Us were made with a paste-based appliance and a food mixer?
• ... that the Indonesian women's magazine Ummi dealt with issues such as dress, food, jewellery, contraceptives, and accepting sons' jihad?
• ... that one historian described the Gothic king Ildibad being struck so suddenly by one of his bodyguards that he was still holding the food he was eating when his head fell to the ground?
• ... that food critic Grace Dent reviewed a Liverpool restaurant that served her rice pudding flavoured with a substance that is banned in the United States for its lethality?

... that the most common food in Medieval cuisine for all social classes was bread and that among the most common ingredients were almond milk and verjuice? ...that bibimbap is a Korean dish that literally means "mixed rice" or "mixed meal"? ...that the South Park song on Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls confection reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart? ...that Sovetskoye Shampanskoye is a generic brand of sparkling wine produced in the Soviet Union and its successor states? ...that in Central American and Mexican cuisine, the drink horchata is made with rice?

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