Best Food Sources In Minecraft

Summary

• The best food sources in
  Minecraft
  are those that are easily obtained and provide the most hunger points and saturation.
• Chorus Fruit found in The End is a valuable food source that randomly teleports players and heals for a bundle of Hunger Points.
• Cooked Beef is the best food source in the game, providing 4 hunger points and a large stack of 12.8 hunger saturation.

Food is a vital resource in Minecraft. Without food, players in Survival Mode will be unable 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 December 13, 2024 by Chris Harkin: Minecraft will likely never stop getting updates and adding new items. In the last couple of years, various new foods and blocks have been added along with different biomes and creatures.

Players are often trying to figure out which foods are the best to go after early in a new world, or what will be best to carry with them on journeys if they prefer constant movement in nomadic-style survival. It is difficult to say which food is the single best or most useful, but players should keep in mind many of the different food items that can be used when they’re playing any form of Minecraft.

25 Spider Eye

Restores 2 Food Points, And Poisons The Consumer

• How To Get: 1 in 3 chance to drop from a Spider or Cave Spider when killed
• Saturation Restored: 3.2

By far the worst food source in Minecraft is the spider eye. If players come across this thing, they shouldn’t be tempted to eat it, even when in desperate need of food, for the spider eye will poison the player for 5 seconds. This poison effect can be pretty lethal, and who would even look at the eye of a spider and think of a tasty snack?

Whilst spider eyes are terrible for consumption, they can be used to make potions with brewing stands, so it’s best to collect the spider eyes and ferment them with sugar and brown mushrooms rather than feasting on them.

24 Rotten Flesh

Restores 4 Food Points, But Has An 80% Chance to Give Hunger For 30 Seconds

• How To Get: Dropped from killed Zombies, Zombie Villagers, Zombie Horses, Husks, Drowned, Zoglins, and Zombified Piglins
• Saturation Restored: 0/8

Another food source that players are surely going to have a high amount of will be rotten flesh. Despite the look of dried jerky, players should try to avoid rotten flesh, but sometimes it can be the only source of food when venturing deep within caves with no way out. Players might have to put aside their morals and consume the flesh of the undead to save themselves but do try and avoid it for future playthroughs.

Whilst there are no dire effects of consuming rotten flesh, players do have an 80% chance of getting the Hunger debuff, which will cause the hunger bar to drain a lot faster than normal. Rotten flesh should be used in desperate times, as filling the hunger bar to regain hearts is important, but rotten flesh does a good job at draining said hunger bar shortly after.

23 Poisonous Potato

Restores 1 Food Point, 60% Chance To Poison

• How To Get: A Rare Drop When Harvesting Potato Crops
• Saturation Restored: 1.2

Although it isn’t the most useful of food items, the poisonous potato is an option in Minecraft. Moreover, it can be used for several amusing effects, like when an update for April Fool’s Day led to them being everywhere. The poisonous potato is an accidental side effect when harvesting potato crops, coming out along with several regular potatoes from each crop.

The poisonous potato does heal a food point and has saturation 1.2, but it isn’t worth eating most of the time, since it also comes with a more than likely chance of poisoning the consumer. This usually means that this is a food item better thrown out and it is fairly useless unless the player is really desperate.

22 Dried Kelp

Restores 1 Food Point

• How To Get: Cook Kelp in a furnace, smoker, or campfire
• Saturation Restored: 0.2

A fast-eaten food source, dried kelp can aid players who need a quick and resourceful snack, but it’s definitely not going to benefit them in the long run. The saturation restored isn’t nearly enough to be sustainable, but luckily, players can easily acquire multiple stacks of 64 for this food source, and there’s always the advantage of it never being in short supply, and always granting XP.

Dried kelp must be cooked in a furnace, smoker, or campfire, and doing so will provide 6.4 experience points per stack of dried kelp. Players can also create blocks of the stuff, ensuring that they will never run out of the edible material. Even better still, the food is eaten twice as fast as other food items, meaning it’s quick and effective, to those who have the stacks.

21 Beetroot

Restores 1 Food Point

• How To Get: Harvest fully grown Beetroot seeds
• Saturation Restored: 1.2

Beetroots aren’t only useful for creating red dye, as hungry players can eat them to restore just one measly food point. Whilst this is by no means impressive, beetroot is an easy item to farm, thanks to the fact that seemingly every village has them in the form of beetroot seeds, and they are a common find in chests found in mineshafts and other sources.

Beetroots will not restore the best level of food points and hunger saturation, but being so readily available as a resource is definitely going to help players who don’t have a cow farm at the ready, or simply have more morals in Minecraft to do such a thing.

20 Glow Berries

Restores 2 Food Points

• How To Get: Harvest From Cave Vines
• Saturation Restored: 0.4

Although they are difficult to find and only grow underground, glow berries are a fun, different addition to Minecraft coming from the Lush Caves update. Glow berries aren’t the very best food, but they are an important one to keep in mind since there isn’t often a lot of food available deep underground.

If players suddenly realize that they’ve run out of food options, these berries that give 2 food points back each can be a major commodity. They’re also very useful for players looking to build an underground base, as not a lot of food can be made consistently available beneath the surface.

19 Melon Slice

Restores 2 Food Points

• How To Get: Harvest melons, which can be found in jungle biomes or savanna villages
• Saturation Restored: 1.2

Upon farming or harvesting a melon, players will earn 3 to 7 melon slices that can be eaten. Whilst this fruit may be sweet and delicious, it’s not the best food item in Minecraft, and players will see themselves consume an entire stack of 64 melon slices rather quickly since the saturation restored is a measly 1.2.

Melons are fun to farm, as they look aesthetically pleasing in certain bases, and players can carry a stack of melons, meaning they can place one, harvest it, and find a near-infinite source of melon slices since a stack of melons could provide a potential of 448 melon slices. However, it’s pretty impractical to carry that many.

18 Sweet Berries

Restores 2 Food Points

• How To Get: Harvested in taiga and snowy taiga biomes
• Saturation Restored: 1.2

Finding sweet berries naturally in taiga biomes, players are not going to have to look far, as they are rather common within. Collecting sweet berries is always a good idea, just be careful not to step into them, as the thorny bush will cause some damage to players. However, once acquired, players will have more berries than they know what to do with, which can then be planted in the ground for more.

Sweet berry bushes grow rather quickly, and they can be used as a line of defense against zombies, a nice decoration outside, or more importantly, as a stackable and always-growing resource that players can keep on their person. It might not be the best, but it’s certainly effective and easy to acquire.

17 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.

16 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.

15 Beetroot Soup

Restores 6 Food Points

• How To Get: Crafted From 6 Beetroot & 1 Bowl
• Saturation Restored: 7.2

There are many craftable foods in Minecraft, and Beetroot Soup is just another one of the many concoctions that is fairly simple to make, but not as useful as it seems since it can’t be stacked. This means that while it is a satisfying meal, and can be used to regain a lot of health in a hurry, players generally won’t bother making it.

Beetroot Soup regenerates most of a health bar in one go, as well as being great for saturation restoration. However, taking six beetroot to make, and a bowl, leaves players usually feeling like they could have just eaten six beetroot. Although this method would take longer, beetroot can be stacked, whereas Beetroot Soup can’t, making for a trade-off that usually means Beetroot Soup is forgotten about as a recipe.

14 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.

13 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.

12 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.

11 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.

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.

10 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.

9 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 more easily 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.

8 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.

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.

7 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.

6 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.