Here are 50 facts from FunFact's “Food” topic, all checked. Each one cites its source (theatlantic.com, smithsonianmag.com, nationalgeographic.com…) and the date it was checked. This topic is part of FunFact Premium.
In 2024, world spinach production reached 31 million metric tons, including about 28 million from China, or 92%.
The figures come from UN agricultural statistics (FAO), as cited by Wikipedia. All the other countries in the world share the remaining 8%, about 2.7 million metric tons.
Source: AtlasBig — Spinach production by country (FAOSTAT data) · Checked on October 26, 2026
Across 13 trials, people who ate breakfast weighed 0.44 kg (about 1 lb) more on average and consumed 260 kcal more per day than those who skipped it.
The trials were of low quality and short duration (seven weeks on average for weight). That doesn't mean eating in the morning is bad: the study only looked at weight in adults in wealthy countries.
Source: BMJ (Sievert et al., 2019) · Checked on October 26, 2026
Swiss engineer Eric Favre studied the baristas of Rome: they pump hot water in bursts, which aerates the coffee.
He turned this into a capsule machine, but Nestlé didn't follow right away: instant Nescafé was selling very well. Nespresso was launched only in 1986, with Favre in charge.
Source: swissinfo.ch (AFP) · Checked on October 26, 2026
Pistachios are harmless little nuts, but they frighten shipping companies.
They are very rich in fat and oil. If stored in large quantities in a closed, damp container, heat builds up inside the pile and the pistachios can ignite and explode spontaneously.
Source: The Atlantic — Why Pistachios Are Spontaneous Combustion Risks · Checked on October 24, 2026
Delivered at 5,895 m (19,341 ft), it earned Pizza Hut the Guinness World Record for the highest pizza delivery on Earth.
A team of five people hiked for four days with the pizza in a battery-heated backpack. The feat celebrated Pizza Hut's opening in Tanzania, its 100th country.
Source: PMQ Pizza Magazine (d'après Guinness World Records) · Checked on October 26, 2026
If you've ever wondered why gummy candies are so shiny and don't stick together in the bag, the answer is simple.
They're coated in carnauba wax, a very hard-wearing natural wax. It's exactly the same product used to make car bodywork shine or to polish wooden furniture.
Source: McGill University — Carnauba Wax in Food · Checked on October 24, 2026
When you buy a nice cut of fresh beef, there's often a red liquid at the bottom of the plastic tray.
Almost all of a cow's blood is drained at the slaughterhouse. This pink juice is just water mixed with a muscle protein (myoglobin) that turns red when it meets the open air.
Source: The New York Times — The Red Juice in Raw Meat Is Not Blood · Checked on October 24, 2026
“Thé” comes from the Min word “tê,” passed on by the Dutch in the 17th century; “chai” came along the overland Silk Road.
Almost all words for “tea” come from three Chinese pronunciations: te (French “thé”, English “tea”, by sea, via Dutch merchants), cha (Portuguese “chá”, via Macao) and chai/cha (Russian, Turkish, Persian, by overland routes).
Source: Horniman Museum — Chá, Chai or Tea? · Checked on October 24, 2026
Among the oldest cooking instructions ever found by historians, none are for making bread or a stew.
It is a very old Sumerian poem written in cuneiform on a clay tablet about 3,800 years ago in Mesopotamia. It describes how to make beer from grain and water.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine — The World's Oldest Recipe · Checked on October 24, 2026
By some estimates, about 48% of the world’s population is fed thanks to synthetic nitrogen, produced by the process of Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch.
This process fixes nitrogen from the air to make fertilizer. It allowed yields to multiply in the 20th century. Its downside: pollution of water and soil from excess nitrogen.
Source: Our World in Data · Checked on October 24, 2026
Milk's fat globules contain yellow-orange carotene, enough to tint the milk of some breeds, such as Jersey and Guernsey cows.
Carotene is the same pigment found in carrots. This tint is natural and harmless: it varies by breed, and Jersey and Guernsey milk is the most golden.
Source: PMC — What Is the Color of Milk and Dairy Products and How Is It Measured? · Checked on October 26, 2026
Growing a single pineapple in England cost about £80, close to £1,900 in today's money.
The fruit reached England in the 17th century (first documented dinner at court in 1668). The craze really took off around 1720, when gardeners learned to ripen it on site. The fashion lasted about 150 years.
Source: Cabinet Magazine — The King of Fruits (Fran Beauman) · Checked on October 26, 2026
Introduced in France in 2017 based on the work of Professor Serge Hercberg’s team; Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Luxembourg recommend it.
This logo rates products from A to E to help compare nutritional balance at the point of purchase. In 2023, a European scientific committee proposed updating its algorithm.
Source: Santé publique France · Checked on October 24, 2026
The French DDM, or “best before” date, shows how long a product keeps its qualities (taste, texture); only the DLC, the “use by” date (“à consommer jusqu’au”), concerns safety.
The DLC (“use by” date) applies to highly perishable products, which can pose an immediate health risk after a short period. Routinely throwing out food past its DDM (“best before” date) is therefore often needless waste.
Source: Service-Public.fr — Date de durabilité minimale et date limite de consommation · Checked on October 24, 2026
The small, evenly spaced holes you see on crackers aren’t there just for decoration.
If those holes weren’t poked before baking, the steam trapped inside would puff the dough up like a balloon, and the cracker wouldn’t be flat and crispy.
Source: Today — Why Do Crackers Have Holes? · Checked on October 24, 2026
Sam Panopoulos, a Greek-born Canadian, created it in 1962 at his restaurant in Ontario.
He named it “Hawaiian” after the brand of canned pineapple he used, not after the islands. So the name doesn't point to a recipe from Hawaii.
Source: The Globe and Mail — Canadian Sam Panopoulos created the Hawaiian pizza · Checked on October 26, 2026
Made from fish flesh or innards steeped for a long time in plenty of salt, it was Rome's main condiment.
Large basins, mostly 5 to 20 cubic meters (about 1,300 to 5,300 gallons) and some up to 180 (about 47,500 gallons), were used to make it. Excavations at Pompeii showed that picarel, a small fish, was used there. A fermented fish sauce is still made in Southeast Asia.
Source: National Geographic — What is garum? Rome's funky sauce made of fish guts · Checked on October 24, 2026
The famous orange triangular chips didn't come out of a big company's lab, but from Mickey's theme park.
In the 1960s, a Mexican restaurant at Disneyland was throwing away unsold taco shells. A cook had the idea of cutting them up, frying them and adding spices to sell to visitors. The success was immediate.
Source: Business Insider — How Doritos Were Invented At Disneyland · Checked on October 24, 2026
If you accidentally swallow the label stuck on your apple, don’t panic.
Laws require that the paper, the ink and even the glue used for these labels be made from non-toxic, edible materials, in case someone eats them by accident.
Source: FDA — Food Labeling and Packaging · Checked on October 24, 2026
This is the “tranchoir” (trencher): a thick slice of bread on which fish or meat is served at the table.
The French word also means a board or dish of wood or metal for carving. Soaked with sauces and juices, the bread plate was often handed out to the poor.
Source: BnF Essentiels — Festins et banquets · Checked on October 24, 2026
It may strengthen champagne bottles and trap sediment, but it also reduces the volume a little: no explanation has won consensus.
In the past, bottles were blown by hand and the base kept the scar left by the pontil rod; pushing the base inward made it harmless for the table. Today the punt mainly helps sparkling wines withstand pressure. In English it is also called a “kick.”
Source: The Manual — Why wine bottles have a punt · Checked on October 26, 2026
For a food to be allowed to call itself “chocolate,” it normally has to contain cocoa solids.
White chocolate is made only from cocoa butter (the fat of the bean), sugar and milk. Because it lacks the brown cocoa powder, it is technically not chocolate.
Source: Bon Appétit — What is White Chocolate? · Checked on October 24, 2026
That was about $6,100 at the time for an 8 kg (17.6 lb) fruit: a record for a Densuke, a variety grown on Hokkaido, an island in northern Japan.
The buyer, a seafood dealer, wanted to support local farming, according to the Kyodo news agency. A spokesperson for the farming cooperative called it the most expensive watermelon in Japanese history.
Source: NBC News · Checked on October 26, 2026
The corn we eat canned or on the cob has a tender, sweet texture.
Long ago, all corn was starchy and hard. A rare natural mutation appeared several centuries ago that stops sugar from turning into starch, giving us the sweet corn we love.
Source: University of Wisconsin — Sweet Corn History · Checked on October 24, 2026
John Glenn, on the third Mercury mission in 1962, was the first to eat straight from an aluminum tube: applesauce.
Tubes were later dropped: you could neither smell nor see the food, and the texture limited variety. The first space foods were cubes, dehydrated powders and purees.
Source: NASA — 60 Years Ago: John Glenn, the First American to Orbit the Earth · Checked on October 24, 2026
Keeping tubers too long in the light causes chemical changes.
Green patches and sprouts contain bitter glycoalkaloids that can cause nausea if eaten in large amounts.
Source: Canadian Food Inspection Agency — Potato Safety · Checked on October 24, 2026
We are often told to eat carrots to get eagle eyes, but it’s a lie invented during World War II.
The British military had developed a new secret radar to shoot down enemy planes at night. To hide this technology, they spread the story that their pilots saw so well in the dark because they ate lots of carrots.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine — A WWII Propaganda Campaign Popularized the Myth That Carrots Help You See in the Dark · Checked on October 24, 2026
Most fruits turn soft and sweet in the sun before falling from the tree, but the avocado does the exact opposite.
It uses the tree like a natural refrigerator to stay hard and green for months. An avocado only starts to ripen and soften once a farmer has picked it.
Source: University of California — Avocado Ripening · Checked on October 24, 2026
Ruth Wakefield of the Toll House Inn cut a Nestlé chocolate bar into small pieces with the tip of an ice pick.
She wanted melted chocolate in her dough but had run out. The pieces didn't melt in the oven: chocolate chips were born. Nestlé later took over her recipe and, according to Wikipedia, gave her chocolate for life.
Source: CooksInfo — Ruth Wakefield · Checked on October 26, 2026
Mold needs oxygen: it grows along the tiny air channels left by the piercing, which creates the blue-green veins.
During aging, wheels of cheese are pricked to create small openings. Air can then get inside and feed the mold. So the veins really are mold, the same mold that gives the cheese its strong taste and smell.
Source: Caves of Faribault — The science of spores · Checked on October 26, 2026
The so-called orthodox recipe combines rice, chicken, rabbit, flat green beans and garrofó (large white beans), tomato, olive oil and saffron.
Seafood paellas, very common in tourist restaurants, are variations. Valencian purists accept a few variations on the orthodox version, but not just any of them.
Source: La Bible de la Paella — La Paella authentique · Checked on October 24, 2026
Shellac (additive E904) is a resin secreted by the female lac insect, which lives on trees in India and Thailand.
It is scraped off the branches and then processed. Because it is edible, it is used as a “confectioner’s glaze” on sweets, and also as a coating for pills.
Source: Pharmaceutical Technology — Coating and Taste Masking with Shellac · Checked on October 26, 2026
This spicy sausage is an American variant of southern Italian salami. The word has meant the sausage in English since 1916 at the latest.
It is milder, finer-grained and softer than its Italian cousins such as soppressata. In Italy, asking for “peperoni” will get you bell peppers, not the pizza topping.
Source: Tasting Table — The Unexpected American Origins Of Pepperoni · Checked on October 26, 2026
There are three main groups of cacao trees: Forastero, Criollo and Trinitario. Criollo, grown by the Maya, supplies only about 10% of chocolate.
Forastero resists disease better than Criollo, so its beans cost less. Criollo is less bitter and more aromatic, but rare and expensive.
Source: All about Chocolate — Varieties · Checked on October 26, 2026
When you buy a ground beef patty at a big fast-food chain, it doesn’t come from just one animal.
In giant factories, tons of meat from dozens or even hundreds of cows are ground and mixed together in huge vats before being shaped into little discs.
Source: Washington Post — A Single Burger Made of 100 Cows · Checked on October 24, 2026
Seafood lovers enjoy slurping freshly opened oysters with a squeeze of lemon.
To avoid serious food poisoning, oysters need to stay alive until the very last second. When they slide down your throat, their heart is still beating.
Source: The Atlantic — Yes, You Are Eating Oysters Alive · Checked on October 24, 2026
This dish, popular all over the world, isn’t named after the famous Roman emperor Julius Caesar.
It was invented in 1924 in Tijuana, Mexico, by a restaurant chef named Caesar Cardini. One day, when he had almost nothing left in his fridge, he tossed together the leftover ingredients in front of his customers for show.
Source: BBC News — The true story of the Caesar salad · Checked on October 24, 2026
Since a 2008 ruling by the European Court of Justice, “parmesan” is reserved for cheese made in a few provinces of Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy.
Parmigiano Reggiano is a protected designation of origin (PDO): it must come from Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, and parts of Bologna and Mantua. Cheese made elsewhere cannot carry that name in the EU.
Source: FoodNavigator — Court says nein to German parmesan claims · Checked on October 26, 2026
It has no AOC (protected designation of origin), unlike Burgundy mustard (IGP, protected geographical indication); 80% of its seeds come from Canada, a small share from Burgundy, and some from the east.
The name “de Dijon” refers to a traditional recipe and requires neither a place of manufacture nor an origin for the seeds. For a regulated Burgundy mustard, look for the IGP “Moutarde de Bourgogne.”
Source: Journal du Net — La moutarde de Dijon vient du Canada · Checked on October 24, 2026
It isn't just weight or size that can be measured: you can also measure mathematically how much a food burns your tongue.
In 1912, the pharmacist Wilbur Scoville invented a test. A regular bell pepper scores zero, Tabasco pepper is around 30,000, and some extreme peppers today go beyond 2 million points on this scale!
Source: Almanac — The Scoville Scale · Checked on October 24, 2026
In 1957 Louis Tomsin closed the village's last white beer brewery; Pierre Celis, then a milkman, brewed his first Hoegaarden in March 1966.
Pierre Celis had started brewing in 1965. After a fire in 1985 and with no insurance, he sold his brewery to Interbrew, today AB InBev, then founded a brewery in Austin, Texas, later run by his daughter.
Source: Beer & Brewing — Celis, Pierre · Checked on October 26, 2026
These big autumn vegetables hide a surprise beneath their hard rind.
With a fleshy structure, many internal seeds and an outer skin, the pumpkin fits the scientific definition of a berry perfectly.
Source: Botanical Society of America — Pumpkins as Berries · Checked on October 24, 2026
On August 10, 2015, Kjell Lindgren, Scott Kelly (NASA) and Kimiya Yui (JAXA) tasted “Outredgeous” red romaine lettuce, grown in NASA's Veggie system.
Growing it had taken 33 days. Each leaf was cleaned with a citric-acid-based wipe before being eaten. This experiment prepares the way for long journeys, where food will have to be produced on site.
Source: Scientific American · Checked on October 24, 2026
Black Ivory coffee takes about 33 kg (73 lb) of coffee cherries to make 1 kg (2.2 lb) of finished coffee, which makes it one of the most expensive coffees in the world.
The elephants eat the cherries along with rice and bananas. The beans spend 10 to 72 hours in their digestive system, then mahouts (elephant keepers) collect them. Production began in 2012 with only 150 kg (about 330 lb).
Source: CBS News — Exotic coffee beans plucked from elephant dung · Checked on October 26, 2026
Despite their taste and the way we snack on them, peanuts have nothing to do with walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts.
They are legumes, in the same family as lentils, chickpeas and green beans. And unlike nuts, they grow hidden underground.
Source: Britannica — Peanut · Checked on October 24, 2026
51% of iodine intake comes from iodized salt (at home and in processed foods), then 26% from dairy products. 86% of bakeries use it.
Swiss soils contain little iodine. That is why bread, made with iodized salt, is the main source of iodine in the country. In the past, chronic fatigue, goiters and cretinism were common there.
Source: Office fédéral de la sécurité alimentaire (OSAV) · Checked on October 26, 2026
The cashew nut we eat grows in a very odd way: it hangs from the end of a red or yellow fruit called the cashew apple.
The nut is enclosed in a highly toxic shell that burns the skin. That is why you never find cashews still in their shells in stores.
Source: Britannica — Cashew · Checked on October 24, 2026
Today, those big, soft, sugary cubes we toast over a campfire are made of sugar and gelatin.
But long ago, this candy was made from the gooey sap of a real wildflower called the “marsh mallow,” which grew in very damp areas.
Source: National Geographic — The History of Marshmallows · Checked on October 24, 2026
Spores of Bacillus cereus survive cooking, then produce a toxin, cereulide, that withstands the heat of reheating.
This is “fried rice syndrome”: nausea and vomiting 1 to 5 hours after the meal. It is better to cool rice quickly and keep it in the refrigerator rather than leave it sitting at room temperature.
Source: University of Florida IFAS Extension — Preventing Foodborne Illness: Bacillus cereus · Checked on October 24, 2026
Engineer Marc Grégoire used Teflon to release his composite fishing rods from their molds; his wife Colette asked him for a nonstick pot.
This idea gave rise to the company Tefal (1956), now a brand of the SEB group. Its name comes from “Teflon” and “aluminum.”
Source: Science Museum Group — Teflon: 80 years of not sticking to things · Checked on October 24, 2026
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