Food Facts for Kids
Tasty facts about the food we eat
Mayonnaise was reportedly invented in 1756 by a French chef who ran out of cream during a feast. He improvised by mixing olive oil with eggs, and the result was so delicious it became a classic sauce.
In the 17th century, nutmeg was so valuable it was worth more than its weight in gold. European nations fought wars and colonised islands just to control the nutmeg trade.
The belief that garlic repels vampires dates back to Eastern European folklore. In reality, garlic's strong antimicrobial properties may have helped protect people from disease, which they once attributed to evil spirits.
Iceberg lettuce is about 96 percent water, making it one of the most water-rich foods you can eat. It got its name not from its icy crunch, but because it was transported in large quantities of crushed ice to keep it fresh.
About 73 percent of the world's maple syrup is produced in the Canadian province of Quebec. Maple trees can only be tapped during a very short window in late winter when nights are freezing but days are warm.
Pepperoni is actually an American invention, not Italian. The word comes from the Italian word for bell pepper ('peperone'), but the spicy cured sausage was developed by Italian-American immigrants in the early 1900s.
Mangoes are sometimes called the 'King of Fruits' and are the most widely consumed fruit in the world. India produces nearly half of the world's mangoes, and the fruit has been cultivated there for over 5,000 years.
Unlike most fruits, pears actually ripen better off the tree than on it. If left on the tree too long, pears ripen from the inside out and become mushy in the middle before the outside looks ripe.
The idea that spinach is exceptionally high in iron was partly due to a decimal point error by a scientist in the 1800s, who accidentally made it look ten times higher than it really is. Spinach does contain iron, but no more than many other vegetables.
Cacao pods grow directly from the trunk and main branches of the cacao tree, not from the tips of branches like most fruit. This unusual arrangement is called cauliflory.