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food
Also known as: nourishment
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Food, substance consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, fat, and other nutrients used in the body of an organism to sustain growth and vital processes and to furnish energy. The absorption and utilization of food by the body is fundamental to nutrition and is facilitated by digestion. Plants, which convert solar energy to food by photosynthesis, are the primary food source. Animals that feed on plants often serve as sources of food for other animals. To learn more about the sequence of transfers of matter and energy in the form of food from organism to organism, see food chain.
food
food
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Key People: M.F.K. Fisher
Related Topics: origins of agriculture dairy product cooking fat famine
You are what you eat? Weird food facts
You are what you eat? Weird food facts
Overview of weird facts about food.See all videos for this article
Hunting and gathering, horticulture, pastoralism, and the development of agriculture are the primary means by which humans have adapted to their environments to feed themselves. Food has long served as a carrier of culture in human societies and has been a driving force for globalization. This was especially the case during the early phases of European trade and colonial expansion, when foods such as the hot red pepper, corn (maize), and sweet potatoes spread throughout Europe to Africa and Asia.
Beer glasses on dark table
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How to tell if food is still safe to eat
How to tell if food is still safe to eat
How to read expiration dates on food packaging.See all videos for this article
Food is treated in a number of articles. For a description of the processes of absorption and utilization of food, see nutrition; nutrition, human; digestion; and digestive system, human. For information on the methods used to prepare raw foods for cooking, consumption, or storage, see food preservation.
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This article was most recently revised and updated by Kara Rogers.
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World Food Programme
UN
Also known as: Programme Alimentaire Mondial, WFP
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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2024 • Article History
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World Food Programme (WFP), organization established in 1961 by the United Nations (UN) to help alleviate world hunger. Its headquarters are in Rome, Italy. In 2020 the World Food Programme (WFP) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace “for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.”
World Food Programme
World Food Programme
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Date: 1961 - present
Areas Of Involvement: economic development social welfare program relief food
The WFP’s programs are aimed at helping the nearly 11 percent of the world’s population that does not have enough to eat. The organization works to achieve the second of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, Zero Hunger, which pledges to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture worldwide. The WFP aids victims of both natural and human-made disasters by collecting and transporting food to crisis areas. It helps people affected by wars and other conflicts, epidemics and pandemics, crop failures, and disasters such as floods, droughts, earthquakes, and storms. In addition to distributing food aid in emergencies, the WFP provides food assistance to meet longer-term needs. The WFP focuses particularly on assisting vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant and nursing women, and the elderly. To stimulate their economies, the WFP purchases more goods and services from developing countries than any other UN agency.
The WFP’s Executive Board consists of 36 states, half elected by the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and half elected by the council of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
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pepper
plant, genus Capsicum
Also known as: Capsicum, garden pepper
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Last Updated: Mar 1, 2024 • Article History
Pepper, (genus Capsicum), genus of more than 30 species of flowering plants in the nightshade family (Solanaceae), several of which are extensively cultivated for their edible, often pungent fruits. The genus comprises all the varied forms of fleshy-fruited peppers, including the mild bell peppers that are used as a vegetable and the hot peppers, such as habanero and tabasco, that are used as relishes, pickled, or ground into a fine powder for use as a spice. Some peppers are grown as ornamentals.
pimiento peppers
pimiento peppers
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Related Topics: Capsicum annuum ghost pepper chili pepper Capsicum frutescens Carolina Reaper
On the Web: Oklahoma State University Extension - Pepper Production (Mar. 01, 2024)
Thai chili pepper
Thai chili pepper
Thai chili peppers (Capsicum annuum), a cultivar known for its piquant fruits.
Peppers are native to tropical America and are particularly important in the cuisines of tropical Asia and equatorial America. Traces of pepper fruits have been found in prehistoric remains in Peru and Mexico, and the plants were widely grown in Central and South America by various pre-Columbian civilizations. Originally mistaken for a form of black pepper (Piper nigrum), the first pepper seeds were carried to Spain in 1493 and from there spread rapidly throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
Grains and spices in bags, India. (Indian, vendor, market, food)
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pepper diversity
pepper diversity
A sampling of the diversity of the pepper genus (Capsicum) at a farmers' market.
aji pepper
aji pepper
Pepper plants are perennials but are grown as tender summer annuals in most areas outside their native habitat. They are propagated by seeding directly in the soil or by transplanting seedlings started in greenhouses or hotbeds after 6 to 10 weeks. The plants become woody as the growing season progresses and bear simple, alternately arranged leaves with smooth margins. The paired or solitary flowers are typically small with five white petals. The fruit is a berry. Pepper fruits come in a variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from the small and nearly circular ají charapita to the long and thin tabasco pepper and to the large, furrowed fruits of the bell pepper.
The science behind spicy foods
The science behind spicy foods
Why hot peppers are hot.See all videos for this article
Hot peppers derive their pungency from capsaicin, a substance characterized by acrid vapours and burning taste. Capsaicin is primarily concentrated in the internal partitions of the fruit and was first isolated in 1876; it is known to stimulate gastric secretions. One of the hottest peppers in the world is the ghost pepper.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Robert Lewis.
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cloudberry
plant
Also known as: Rubus chamaemorus, bakeapple, bakeberry, baked apple berry, malka, salmonberry, yellowberry
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Cloudberry, (Rubus chamaemorus), creeping herbaceous plant in the rose family (Rosaceae), native to the Arctic and subarctic regions of the north temperate zone, and its edible raspberry-like fruit. Eskimos and Sami collect the sweet juicy fruits in autumn to freeze for winter food. In markets of northern Scandinavia, cloudberries are sold for use in preserves, tarts, and other confections. They are also made into a liqueur.
cloudberry
cloudberry
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Also called: salmonberry, yellowberry, bakeapple, bakeberry, malka, or baked apple berry
Related Topics: blackberry bramble berry
cloudberries
cloudberries
Edible cloudberries (Rubus chamaemorus).
Cloudberries are low-growing perennials that spread readily by a creeping rootlike stem, or rhizome. The toothed leaves are circular with rounded lobes. The plants are dioecious, meaning individuals are either male or female. Female plants produce yellow or amber-coloured fruit from a 2.5-cm (1-inch) white flower. The fruits—each technically an aggregate of druplets—are borne terminally on stalks that grow to a height of 7.6–25 cm (3–10 inches).
Venus's-flytrap. Venus's-flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) one of the best known of the meat-eating plants. Carnivorous plant, Venus flytrap, Venus fly trap
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Plants: From Cute to Carnivorous
This article was most recently revised and updated by Melissa Petruzzello.
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horehound
herb
Also known as: Marrubium vulgare, hoarhound, white horehound
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Horehound, (Marrubium vulgare), bitter perennial herb of the mint family (Lamiaceae), native to Europe, North Africa, and Central Asia. The plant has naturalized throughout much of North and South America and is considered an invasive species in parts of Australia and New Zealand. The leaves and flowering tops are used as flavouring for beverages and candies, and infusions or extracts of horehound in the form of syrups, teas, or lozenges are sometimes used in herbal remedies for coughs and minor pulmonary disturbances.
horehound
horehound
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Also spelled: hoarhound
Also called: white horehound
Related Topics: herb
Physical description
The horehound plant is coarse, strongly aromatic, and less than 1 metre (3 feet) tall with square stems. Its blunt-toothed broad wrinkled leaves are woolly white below and pale green and downy above. The flowers are small, whitish, and densely clustered in axillary whorls. The plant is drought-tolerant and can thrive in poor soils.
Venus's-flytrap. Venus's-flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) one of the best known of the meat-eating plants. Carnivorous plant, Venus flytrap, Venus fly trap
Britannica Quiz
Plants: From Cute to Carnivorous
Other species
Black horehound (Ballota nigra), a hairy perennial herb with a fetid odour, belongs to the same family. It has purplish flowers and lacks the woolly white appearance of white horehound. It is sometimes used to adulterate extracts of white horehound. It is native to the same regions as white horehound and is considered an invasiv
e species in some parts of North America.
