Food and Drink
Food and Drink
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, and/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, which is operated by multinational corporations that use intensive farming and industrial agriculture to maximize system output.
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".
Food preparation
While many foods can be eaten raw, many also undergo some form of preparation for reasons of safety, palatability, texture, or flavor. At the simplest level this may involve washing, cutting, trimming, or adding other foods or ingredients, such as spices. It may also involve mixing, heating or cooling, pressure cooking, fermentation, or combination with other food. In a home, most food preparation takes place in a kitchen. Some preparation is done to enhance the taste or aesthetic appeal; other preparation may help to preserve the food; others may be involved in cultural identity. A meal is made up of food which is prepared to be eaten at a specific time and place.
Animal preparation
The preparation of animal-based food usually involves slaughter, evisceration, hanging, portioning, and rendering. In developed countries, this is usually done outside the home in slaughterhouses, which are used to process animals en masse for meat production.
On the local level, a butcher may commonly break down larger animal meat into smaller manageable cuts, and pre-wrap them for commercial sale or wrap them to order in butcher paper. In addition, fish and seafood may be fabricated into smaller cuts by a fishmonger. However fish butchery may be done on board a fishing vessel and quick-frozen for preservation of quality.
Drinks
A drink, or beverage, is a liquid which is specifically prepared for human consumption. In addition to filling a basic human need, beverages form part of the culture of human society.
Drinking water
Despite the fact that all beverages contain water, water itself is not classed as a beverage. The word beverage has traditionally been defined as not referring to water.
Alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink that contains ethanol, commonly known as alcohol (although in chemistry the definition of "alcohol" includes many other compounds).
Beer has been a part of human culture for 8,000 years. In Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and many other European countries, drinking beer (and other alcoholic beverages) in a local bar or pub is a cultural tradition.
Non-alcoholic beverage
A non-alcoholic beverage is one that contains little or no alcohol. This category includes low-alcohol beer, non-alcoholic wine, and apple cider if they contain less than 0.5% alcohol by volume.
Soft drink
The term "soft drink" specifies the absence of alcohol in contrast to "hard drink" and "drink". "Drink" is nominally neutral but often connotes alcoholic content. Beverages such as soda pop, sparkling water, iced tea, lemonade, squash, and fruit punch are the most common soft drinks. Milk, hot chocolate, tea, coffee, milkshakes, and tap water are not considered to be soft drinks. Some carbonated soft drinks are available in versions that are sweetened with a sugar substitute.
Fruit juice
Fruit juice is a natural product that contains few additives, or none. Citrus products such as orange juice and tangerine juice are very familiar breakfast beverages. Grapefruit juice, pineapple, apple, grape, lime, and lemon juice are also familiar products. Coconut water is a highly nutritious and refreshing juice.
Many kinds of berries are crushed and their juices mixed with water and sometimes sweetened. Raspberry, blackberry and currants are often popular juices drinks but the percentage of water also determines their nutritive value. Juices were probably humankind's earliest drinks besides water. Grapes juice that was allowed to ferment produced the alcoholic drink wine.
Fruits are highly perishable and so the ability to create juices and store them was of significant value. Some fruits are highly acidic and mixing them with additional water and sugars or honey was often necessary to make them palatable. Early storage of fruit juices was labor intensive, requiring the crushing of the fruits and the mixing of the resulting pure juices with sugars before bottling and capping them.
Orange juice and coconut water remain by far the most highly consumed juices on the market and are there because of their valuable nutrients and hydration abilities.
Hot beverages
A hot beverage is any beverage which is normally served heated. This may be through the addition of a heated liquid, such as water or milk, or by directly heating the beverage itself.