Food Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers

Food trivia quiz questions with answers about various foods

Food Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers

What is food?
A: Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for an organism.

Most food has its origin in what?
A: Plants.

Some food is obtained directly from plants; but even animals that are used as food sources are raised by feeding them what?
A: Food derived from plants.

Cereal grain is a staple food that provides more what?
A: More food energy worldwide than any other type of crop.

Corn (maize), wheat, and rice, in all of their varieties, account for what percentage of all grain production worldwide?
A: 87%.

Most of the grain that is produced worldwide is used for what?
A: It’s fed to livestock.

Some foods not from animal or plant sources include various what?
A: Edible fungi, especially mushrooms.

Fungi and ambient bacteria are used in the preparation of fermented and pickled foods like what?
A: Leavened bread, alcoholic drinks, cheese, pickles, kombucha, and yogurt.

Another example is blue-green algae such as what?
A: Spirulina.

Inorganic substances such as salt, baking soda and cream of tartar are used to do what?
A: Preserve or chemically alter an ingredient.

Many plants and plant parts are eaten as food and around how many plant species are cultivated for food?
A: 2,000.

Many of these plant species have what?
A: Several distinct cultivars.

Why are seeds of plants a good source of food for animals, including humans?
A: Because they contain the nutrients necessary for the plant's initial growth, including many healthful fats, such as omega fats.

The majority of foods consumed by human beings are what?
A: Seed-based foods.

Edible seeds include what?
A: Cereals (corn, wheat, rice, et cetera), legumes (beans, peas, lentils, et cetera), and nuts.

Oilseeds are often pressed to produce what?
A: Rich oils - sunflower, flaxseed, rapeseed (including canola oil), sesame, et cetera.

Seeds are typically high in what?
A: Unsaturated fats and, in moderation, are considered a health food.

However, not all seeds are what?
A: Edible.

Large seeds, such as those from a lemon, pose a what?
A: A choking hazard.

Seeds from cherries and apples contain what?
A: Cyanide which could be poisonous only if consumed in large volumes.

Fruits are the ripened what?
A: Ovaries of plants, including the seeds within.

Many plants and animals have coevolved such that the fruits of the former are what?
A: An attractive food source to the latter.

Why?
A: Because animals that eat the fruits may excrete the seeds some distance away.

Fruits, therefore, make up a significant part of what?
A: The diets of most cultures.

Some botanical fruits, such as tomatoes, pumpkins, and eggplants, are eaten as what?
A: Vegetables.

Veggies are a second type of “what”, that is commonly eaten as food?
A: Plant matter.

Animals are used as food either directly or how?
A: Indirectly by the products they produce.

Meat is an example of a direct product taken from an animal, which comes from what?
A: Muscle systems or from organs.

Food products produced by animals include milk produced by what?
A: Mammary glands, which in many cultures is drunk or processed into dairy products (cheese, butter, etc.).

Birds and other animals lay what?
A: Eggs, which are often eaten.

Bees produce honey, a reduced nectar from flowers, which is a what?
A: A popular sweetener in many cultures.

Some cultures consume blood, sometimes in the form of what?
A: Blood sausage, as a thickener for sauces, or in a cured, salted form for times of food scarcity.

Some cultures and people do not consume meat or animal food products for what reasons?
A: Cultural, dietary, health, ethical, or ideological reasons.

Vegetarians choose to forgo food from what?
A: Animal sources to varying degrees.

Vegans do not consume any foods that are or contain ingredients from what?
A: An animal source.

Most food has always been obtained through what?
A: Agriculture.

With increasing concern over both the methods and products of modern industrial agriculture, there has been a growing trend toward what?
A: Sustainable agricultural practices.

This approach, partly fueled by consumer demand, encourages biodiversity, local self-reliance and what?
A: Organic farming methods.

Animals, specifically humans, have what five different types of tastes?
A: Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.

As animals have evolved, the tastes that provide the most energy (sugar and fats) are the most pleasant to what?
A: Eat while others, such as bitter, are not enjoyable.

Water, while important for survival, has no what?
A: Taste.

Fats, on the other hand, especially saturated fats, are thicker and rich and are thus considered what?
A: More enjoyable to eat.

Generally regarded as the most pleasant taste, sweetness is almost always caused by a type of what?
A: Simple sugar such as glucose or fructose, or disaccharides such as sucrose, a molecule combining glucose and fructose.

Complex carbohydrates are long chains and thus do not have the what?
A: Sweet taste.

Artificial sweeteners such as sucralose are used to mimic the sugar molecule, creating the sensation of sweet, without what?
A: The calories.

The stevia plant contains a compound known as steviol which, when extracted, has 300 times the what?
A: Sweetness of sugar.

Sourness is caused by the taste of what?
A: Acids, such as vinegar in alcoholic beverages.

Sour foods include citrus, specifically what?
A: Lemons, limes, and to a lesser degree oranges.

Sour is evolutionarily significant as it is a sign for a food that may have what?
A: Gone rancid due to bacteria.

Many foods, however, are slightly acidic, and help stimulate what?
A: The taste buds and enhance flavor.

Saltiness is the taste of what?
A: Alkali metal ions such as sodium and potassium.

It is found in almost every food in low to moderate proportions to what?
A: Enhance flavor.

There are many different types of salt, with each having a different degree of saltiness, including what?
A: Sea salt, fleur de sel, kosher salt, mined salt, and grey salt.

Some canned foods, notably soups or packaged broths, tend to be high in salt as a means of what?
A: Preserving the food longer.

Historically salt has long been used as a meat preservative as salt promotes what?
A: Water excretion.

Similarly, dried foods also promote what?
A: Food safety.

Bitterness is a sensation often considered unpleasant characterized by having a what?
A: A sharp, pungent taste.

Umami, the Japanese word for delicious, is the least known in what?
A: Western popular culture but has a long tradition in Asian cuisine.

Umami is the taste of what?
A: Glutamates, especially monosodium glutamate (MSG).

How is it characterized?
A: As savory, meaty, and rich in flavor.