Minecraft: Best Food Sources

Food is a vital resource in Minecraft. Without food, players in Survival Mode will not be able to run, and when empty, they will slowly lose hearts and starve. Luckily, there are many different food sources in Minecraft, some options are more animal or eco-friendly than others, meaning every type of player can eat the best foods in the game.

The best food isn’t based on the most flavorsome, or the rarest foods in Minecraft, but instead the easiest to obtain, mixed with the food that will fill the most hunger bars and for the longest time. There are plenty of food sources in Minecraft, and some aren’t worth the effort, whereas others are essential.

Updated January 24, 2024, by Jake Fillery: Whilst the fun that players can have in Minecraft seems endless, sometimes they will need to take a quick break for a snack or two to make sure their hunger meter does not half their activity. Luckily, the best food sources in Minecraft will help to aid players, through not just a consumption of hunger points, but through revitalizing their hearts to ensure that they will survive any bout thrown at them. The Minecraft best food can be acquired through a variety of ways, whether that’s crafting, cooking, or simply looting. Despite the difference and versatility of these foods, they can all grant unique bonuses, other than a filled stomach.

16 Chorus Fruit

Restores 4 Food Points, Teleports The Player

• How To Get: Break Chorus Plants found in The End
• Saturation Restored: 2.4

The Chorus Fruit can be found in abundance thanks to exploring The End after the defeat of the Ender Dragon. However, traversing here in itself is an endgame activity, and perhaps one that players do not want to venture towards just to gain some fruit. However, the Chorus Fruit does randomly teleport players, which could end up saving their lives.

On top of the fact that players can teleport freely without the damaging effects of an Ender Pearl, the Chorus Fruit heals for a bundle of Hunger Points, and the common resource in The End means players can carry boundless amounts of this fruit from another dimension.

15 Cake

Restores 14 Food Points (2 Per Slice)

• How To Get: Crafted using a crafting table with 3 milk buckets in the top row, sugar, egg, sugar, in the middle row, and 3 wheat in the bottom row
• Saturation Restored: 2.8 / 0.4 (per slice)

Whilst a cake may not seem like the most practical food to bring on a mission, the fact that it is so easily craftable with the abundance of resources made available means it’s always a good time for everyone when a cake is ready to be placed. The cake food in Minecraft has the benefit of feeding everyone, and no animation is required to chow down here.

When placing the cake, players can spam the action button to eat the cake and even allow their friends to dig into the sugary dessert as well. Eating an entire cake can net players 14 Hunger Points, or just one bite will give them 2 Hunger Points. Cakes are great to keep the teamwork going.

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13 Bread

Restores 5 Food Points

• How To Get: Crafted from 3 Wheat in the same row
• Saturation Restored: 6

Bread is a common food item that can be sourced quite easily. For players to obtain bread, they need to look no further than the grass, which can be found in almost any great biome, as all they will need is a single seed to drop. Growing this seed, players will be granted wheat, to which they will need three wheat to craft one piece of bread.

The bread generates 2.5 hunger points when consumed, which isn’t a bad statistic, but the 6 hunger saturation knocks it down a few considering players will be eating more bread than they produce. Either way, bread is a good source of food, especially when it can be traded with villagers or easily made.

12 Carrots

Restores 3 Food Points

• How To Get: Farmed from other carrots
• Saturation Restored: 3.6

Although carrots only charge 1.5 hunger points, the fact that they are so easy to grow makes them a great food source. A stack of carrots is not hard to obtain, and as long as players keep one handy, they can grow a near-infinite supply, especially with Redstone. Carrots grow rather quickly, especially with the accessibility of bone meals.

Carrots may not have the best saturation or hunger points, but the fact that they can save a player from starving in a cave with nothing but some water and a dirt block means that they can be used to a near infinite amount.

11 Honey Bottle

Restores 6 Food Points, Removes Poison Effect

• How To Get: Harvest honey from a beehive with an empty glass bottle
• Saturation Restored: 1.2

The addition of bees has been a rather adorable one, but also extremely useful. Players can now harvest filled beehives with a glass bottle to claim some honey, which has multiple uses. Players can drink the honey, or instead use it to craft honey blocks and sugar, which opens up new ways to craft and play the game that fans have adored for over a decade.

The downside is that this method may anger bees, but there are some creative methods with dispensers that will surely help with this burden. Players can stack honey bottles, meaning they can always have some on hand. Yet, there is a delay, as drinking the honey bottle is 25% slower than other foods, but it’s a sweet drink for players invested in beekeeping.

10 Baked Potato

Restores 5 Food Points

• How To Get: Farm potatoes and then cook them in a furnace, smoker, or campfire
• Saturation Restored: 6

Upon farming a potato, players might be overwhelmed by its lack of use, especially when they can get a spoiled potato that will poison them. However, potatoes are a great source of food in Minecraft, as they can be cooked with any fuel to create a baked potato. This vegetable is also a great way to bring a challenge for veteran players in Minecraft, as it is a pacifist way to play.

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With a baked potato in hand, players can expect an increase of 2.5 hunger points, with 6 hunger saturation. Although the saturation is not the best, potatoes are very easy to farm once the player has one. Cooking them also nets the player a small amount of experience, so it’s always worth having these on hand if nothing else.

9 Cooked Mutton

Restores 6 Food Points

• How To Get: Kill a sheep and cook its raw meat
• Saturation Restored: 9.6

For a total of 3 hunger points, the cooked mutton does quite well in the food department. Players can obtain the cooked mutton by killing a sheep and obtaining the raw mutton. Cooking the raw mutton will grant some experience points and a decent food source. Sheep can be found across many biomes in Minecraft, including some great biome mods players should try.

The problem with cooked mutton is that it comes from sheep, which is a fairly valuable resource because of the wool that they can produce. Wool is great for several things, so keeping sheep alive for a wool farm is better than having a mutton farm.

8 Cooked Chicken

Restores 6 Food Points

• How To Get: Kill a chicken and cook its raw meat
• Saturation Restored: 7.2

Chickens seem to be everywhere in Minecraft, even if they are hard to catch, they aren’t as hard to cook. By eating cooked chicken, players will be given 3 hunger points, which is a decent amount, especially when one considers the 7.2 hunger saturation. Cooked chicken can also be given out easier thanks to a sword with Looting 3.

With cooked chicken, players can expect an increase in experience, as it will need to be cooked through a furnace, smoker, or campfire. The reason it’s not on the top of the list is the other uses of chicken, as they can drop eggs and take up little space on a farm. They also tend to spawn in almost any of the biomes.

7 Cooked Salmon

Restores 6 Food Points

• How To Get: Catch or kill salmon found in water, then cook
• Saturation Restored: 9.6

Salmon is quite common in Minecraft. All players have to do to obtain one is fish, or go looking for them underwater. Salmon spawn quite frequently and in a decent amount of numbers. Cooking said salmon will net the player a small amount of experience, but the real selling point, other than the ease of access of finding salmon, is the saturation points.

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Cooked salmon will provide the player with 3 hunger points, and a grand saturation of 9.6. This means that even though salmon is easy to obtain, players will not be consuming stacks of edible fish just to get through one day in Minecraft.

6 Cooked Porkchop

Restores 8 Food Points

• How To Get: Kill pigs and cook their dropped meat
• Saturation Restored: 12.8

Porkchops come from a variety of sources in Minecraft. Although it doesn’t grow on trees, many mobs can drop porkchops. Pigs and hoglins can drop raw porkchops, but if they are killed while on fire, they will drop a cooked porkchop. Considering the Nether has a great food source of Hoglins, cooked porkchops are in no short supply.

The best source of porkchops is definitely in the Nether. Hoglins may pack a violent punch, but they warrant their violence thanks to their grand reward, as players will have stacks of cooked porkchops with a powerful sword with Looting and Fire Aspect. The bonus of cooked porkchops is their amazing saturation of 12.8 and 4 hunger points.

5 Steak

Restores 8 Food Points

• How To Get: Kill cows and harvest their raw meat to cook it
• Saturation Restored: 12.8

When killing a cow or lore-curious mooshroom, players will receive a piece of raw beef. This raw beef can then be cooked, the same as the others, for experience, and grants the player cooked beef. This is by far the best food source in the game, as it will provide the player with 4 hunger points and a large stack of 12.8 hunger saturation.

Cooked beef is the best source of food based on the stats, but the fact that cows only have one use outside of their loot means they are great to farm. Cooked beef can be stacked like the other materials to 64, and players with Looting 3 will never run out of cooked beef with the best farms in Minecraft.

4 Golden Apple

Restores 4 Food Points, Provides Absorption For 2 Minutes & Regeneration 2 For 5 Seconds

• How To Get: Place an apple in the center of a crafting table and fill the outer box with 8 gold ingots
• Saturation Restored: 9.6

Apples are a great resource in Minecraft, but they can be even better thanks to Golden Apples. With these on the player’s side, they will see themselves as gods able to take on the Ender Dragon and the Wither. Although, it’s probably wise not to try and test the might of the Warden, as even a Golden Apple isn’t capable of taking down those monstrosities.

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Gold is in abundance once players reach the Nether and start to claim some more resources for their growing empire. As such, players should invest in golden apples, as they will not only heal for 4 Hunger Points, but they will grant Regeneration 2 for 5 seconds and Absorption for 2 minutes.

3 Pumpkin Pie

Restores 8 Food Points

• How To Get: Place a pumpkin on the left middle row of a crafting table, with sugar in the center and an egg below the sugar
• Saturation Restored: 4.8

A sugary and sweet delicacy, players can embrace the Autumn and the Halloween spirit in the best possible way, by creating a pumpkin pie. It’s not particularly hard to create and requires just three ingredients. Players with an efficient pumpkin farm will be glad to know that pumpkins now have more uses than simply decorating a house with jack-o’ lanterns, or using them as masks to stare directly at Endermen without trouble.

The pumpkin pie is a great food source in Minecraft, and players will actually have to make it themselves, rather than butchering an animal or fishing. This could be a fun option for players looking for something cuter and friendlier to animals, so long as there is sugar cane and chicken around.

2 Rabbit Stew

Restores 10 Food Points

• How To Get: Place a baked potato in the center of the crafting table, with a carrot to the left and any mushroom to the right, with a cooked rabbit above the baked potato, and a bowl below it
• Saturation Restored: 12

Rabbits sure are adorable in Minecraft, but they make for even better food. Whilst eating cooked rabbit isn’t the best food source, using a multitude of ingredients can craft a pretty delicious soup that will restore a plethora of food points and keep saturation levels high. Yet, there’s a fatal flaw in rabbit stew, and that’s not the murder of bunnies.

Players cannot stack soup like other foods in Minecraft, meaning they are limited to one per slot. This may take up inventory space that players are not happy with, especially when they can carry 64 of other food sources like cooked steak or carrots. Still, trying one rabbit stew should be on the list.

1 Golden Carrot

Restores 6 Food Points

• How To Get: Place a carrot in the center of a crafting table, and surround it with 8 gold nuggets
• Saturation Restored: 14.4

A golden carrot is even easier to make than a golden apple, due to the fact that it only needs gold nuggets. These nuggets can be found in the Nether in abundance, or players can simply use one gold ingot to transfer into 9 nuggets. This means that players can effectively use one gold ingot for every carrot to make a powerful food item, one that heals for a whopping 6 Hunger Points.

Whilst players might not see the added bonuses of the golden apple when using the golden carrot, their hunger will be solved for a while thanks to the 14.4 points of restoration restored, meaning they don’t need to eat a carrot every minute just to stay alive.

Minecraft

Platform(s)

PS4 , PS3 , PS Vita , Xbox One , Xbox 360 , Switch , 3DS , PC , Android , iOS , Wii U

Released

November 18, 2011

Genre(s)

Sandbox , Survival