Food

Food is a group of items that refill the Hunger bar, which has a direct bearing on the player's health. See Hunger for information on its effects.

With the exception of milk and mushroom stew, all food items and ingredients can be stacked in a player's inventory. Eggs, milk, sugar, wheat, and mushrooms cannot be consumed, but are instead crafted into other edible items. Holding down the "Use Item" button (default is Button 2, right mouse button) will allow the user to eat the food that is in the player's hand. Note that cake must be placed like other blocks on a surface before being eaten.

Food
(There is also an invisible saturation bar, in addition to the food bar, that controls other aspects of hunger.)

Nourishment Values
(Nourishment is used as a casual term for a food item's ratio of saturation to food points restored.) 2.4  1.6   1.2   0.6   0.2 

Ingredients
The following items cannot be consumed on their own. Instead, they are crafted with other ingredients to produce certain food items.

Consumable Ingredients
While the following ingredients can be crafted with others, they can be eaten on their own to induce or nullify certain effects on the player.

History
In previous versions of Minecraft, food did not have an eating animation, simply disappearing from the player's hand as if a block had been placed. Food also restored a set amount of hearts instantly - a player could return from the brink of death during a fight almost immediately by consuming a few porkchops or bowls of stew. To keep a certain level of challenge to the gameplay, Notch prevented players from taking advantage of this instant recovery by ensuring food (with the exception of the ingredients) did not stack in the inventory before Beta 1.8.

When the Hunger Bar was added in Beta 1.8, food became an even more vital resource as the player was required to eat regularly to avoid dying of starvation and regenerate health after taking damage.