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
(In addition to the food bar there is an invisible saturation bar that controls other aspects of hunger.)

From the saturation per food point values, it becomes evident that the most efficient food is the golden apple followed closely by the cooked variants of steak and porkchop, so long as no food points are wasted by eating them with an almost-full food bar. A handy aid-memoir for these efficiency values is that:
 * Cooked red meats have a 1.6 saturation/food point ratio.
 * Cooked white meats and crafted vegetables (bread and stew) have a 1.2 ratio.
 * Raw meat and vegetables (apple and melon) have a 0.6 ratio.
 * Sweet pastries (cake and cookies) have a 0.2 ratio.

Ingredients
The following items cannot restore Hunger points on their own, but are crafted together with others to make more substantial food.

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.