Top 21 Best Minecraft Food Items

When it comes to building the best cities, megastructures, or fighting Nether Dragons, even Steve needs nutritious food.

This guide will help you find The Top 21 Best Food in Minecraft, how to get them, and what should be your top priority in order to survive in Minecraft.

Keep in mind that this list is ranked according to their usefulness and obtainability, especially in Survival and Hardcore modes.

21. Carrots

Hunger Points Restored: 1.5

Saturation: 3.6

Acquired from: Harvesting crops, Zombies

So far down the list are carrots. These are really the best food in Minecraft, especially if you’re just starting out. Carrots are abundant in the world, even in Survival and Hardcore.

Basically, it’s your staple food while you don’t have a farm yet.

20. Raw Cod

Hunger Points Restored: 1

Saturation: 0.4

Acquired from: Fishing, slaying cod, dolphins, guardians, polar bears, etc.

Probably not the most satisfying food out there, raw cod takes the 20th spot solely for its difficulty of acquisition. When starting a Minecraft game, it’s not really impossible to spawn near a body of water.

But when playing Survival and Hardcore, you have at least an 80% chance of spawning in land than near a water body.

You’ll waste precious Hunger points scouring cods when you can just get carrots for the time being.

19. Raw Salmon

Hunger Points Restored: 1

Saturation: 0.4

Acquired from: Fishing, salmon, polar bears, fishermen village.

Again, raw salmon is just like getting raw cod. They have no significant difference, aside from their names, although raw salmon can be a bit harder to get that raw cod.

In terms of sources, raw cod is still better than raw salmon.

18. Apple

Hunger Points Restored: 2

Saturation: 2.4

Acquired from: Dark oak leaves, harvesting, trade

Saturation-wise, this isn’t the best food compared to carrots. Apples make up for its hunger points that it can restore. It’s objectively superior to carrots in terms of hunger points.

Besides, we’re talking about Survival, so either of the two or both are good enough.

17. Raw Chicken

Hunger Points Restored: 1

Saturation: 1.2

Acquired from: Slaying chickens

You might be wondering why raw chickens when the previous ones were better already.

Well, the simple answer is that breeding chickens earn you eggs, and killing them gives you raw chicken meat, which you can cook later.

Raw chickens are a substitute for when you can only kill them but not make food out of them. Remember, it’s all about Survival.

16. Raw Rabbit

Hunger Points Restored: 1.5

Saturation: 1.8

Acquired from: Slaying rabbits

Again, nothing denies this good rabbit meat, especially if you’re hunting out in the wilds.

You can get rabbits from plains and farms in terms of spawn rates, but it’s a good substitute for chickens if you can’t find any. It’s healthier and makes you fuller too.

15. Baked Potato

Hunger Points Restored: 2.5

Saturation: 6

Acquired from: Cooking potatoes in furnaces or campfires

Learned how to make fire already? Well, congratulations. Now it’s time for you to cook real delicacies.

Baked potatoes are the first in terms of its abundance, as potatoes can be obtained from villages, especially if you like making friends. They spawn there higher than shipwrecks.

14. Bread

Hunger Points Restored: 2.5

Saturation: 6

Acquired from: Wheat crafting, dungeons, villages, etc.

While baked potatoes are objectively easier to get and have the same properties as bread, this food item is good solely for being plenty, even in dungeons and mineshafts where it’s almost impossible to get food resources from.

You can also plant wheat and harvest it for better yields, especially if you like farming items. It’s important to set up a farm early on for you to be able to survive in the latter stages of the game.

13. Mushroom Stew

Hunger Points Restored: 3

Saturation: 7.2

Acquired from: Bowl + mushrooms

Well, if you already have a farm, it’s easier to get food without worrying if you’ll ever get hungry again. But then again, cooking food is important.

Sure, baking is just fine, but cooking food and delicacies are vital for the adventure.

Mushroom stew tops this list simply for being easy to get ingredients and craftable as soon as you can craft bowls. Mushrooms can be obtained from any poorly lit areas such as caves and dungeons.

12. Cooked Rabbit

Hunger Points Restored: 3

Saturation: 6

Acquired from: Cooking raw rabbits or killing them with a Fire Aspect weapon

Do you know what’s better than a raw rabbit? That’s right, a cooked rabbit. Realistically, it’s better than its raw counterpart.

Cooked rabbits aren’t really hard to obtain. Get a Fire Aspect mod for your weapon, and voila, you can cook rabbits or any animals easier.

But, another way is killing them first, then taking them to your campfire and cooking them there. Whatever your methods of cooking are, just remember that cooked meat is better than raw meat.

11. Cooked Mutton

Hunger Points Restored: 3

Saturation: 9.6

Acquired from: Slaying sheep with fire, trading with villagers

I never actually got to eat one of these in real life, but cooked mutton is a better version of raw mutton. If you’re not familiar with the term, muttons are the meat you can harvest by killing sheep.

It’s got a saturation level of 9.6, which is hefty, compared to all the previous 10 items here.

It makes you eat less of it, which leads to spending more time crafting and hunting, more than killing these poor animals.

10. Cooked Chicken

Hunger Points Restored: 3

Saturation: 7.2

Acquired from: Slaying chickens with fire, trade

One of Minecraft’s best foods so far, earning its place in the 10th spot, is the cooked chicken.

In real life, cooked chickens are better than cooked muttons because they’re easy to get your hands on, which goes the same for Minecraft as well.

It’s not really hard to get chickens once you’ve managed to set up a barn where you can get as many of them as possible.

You can even get a few of them from trading with villagers, which I think is pretty neat.

9. Cooked Salmon

Hunger Points Restored: 3

Saturation: 9.6

Acquired from: Slaying salmons, cooking raw salmons with fire, hidden treasure chests

Yet another cooked version of the raw foods previously in the list, cooked salmon, is just as good as cooked muttons, but source-wise, you can’t get cooked muttons from buried treasure chests, can you?

You can also cook salmon from having a raw salmon with you, which you should obviously do.

While in terms of statistical differences, you’re almost always like to spawn in a landmass than on a body of water, so there’s that.

8. Suspicious Stew

Hunger Points Restored: 6.5

Saturation: 21.2

Acquired from: Bowl + mushrooms, dandelion, blue orchid

Surprisingly, even if this stew is suspicious enough for it to be named that way, there’s no doubt about the nutritional value that this stew will bring towards your character.

With a whopping 21.2 Saturation points, you don’t need to eat every now and then, since this food item will definitely fill you longer than any of the food items in the list.

Also, since this stew is rather something, it also fills you with random buffs and debuffs depending on the type of ingredients you use on the soup.

7. Rabbit Stew

Hunger Points Restored: 5

Saturation: 12

Acquired from: Bowl + mushrooms, cooked rabbit, baked potatoes, carrots; trading

This fine piece of stew is definitely the top tier stew in the game.

You don’t need to risk yourself being debuffed when you’re guaranteed a good amount of Saturation and Hunger points with zero drawbacks.

It’s very easy to cook this stew since carrots are abundant almost everywhere, mushrooms can be taken from caves, potatoes + fire will definitely bring the baked potatoes, or you can just skip it via trading.

Whatever works for you is good enough for us, but you must try cooking rabbit stew at least once…or 64 times.

6. Golden Carrot

Hunger Points Restored: 3

Saturation: 14.4

Acquired from: Crafting carrots + 8 gold nuggets; trading

In most guides, they will consider this food item as top tier, especially if you factor out the Saturation ratio per hunger points, which is 2.4, the highest in the game. But it’s very expensive to make.

There are better alternatives to this food, but by saturation ratio alone, proves that eating gold carrots is something you don’t need to do a lot in the game since it will fill you up more than eating a rabbit stew.

It’s also important to set up auto-farms, but hell, this item is too expensive for all its worth. Still, better than most of the items in this list, so it’s a deserved spot.

5. Pumpkin Pie

Hunger Points Restored: 4

Saturation: 4.8

Acquired from: Mixing egg, pumpkin, and sugar; trading

Why is this in the top 5 list, out of all the food items in the game that has better overall stats.

Well, we’re talking about Survival and Hardcore modes where it’s punishing enough to adventures alone, much more so without the right food supplies.

Since the abundance of supplies from playing more and more into the game will definitely keep up with you, there’s an easier way to get the best food item again by auto farming.

Pumpkin pies aren’t the best food item in terms of hunger points restored or saturation content, but the simplicity of its ingredients and its availability throughout the entire game proves that this pie is something most people tend to overlook.

It’s very easy to craft compared to the more complex stews, and that reasoning alone proves its worth to be placed in the top 5 of the Top 21 Best Food Items in Minecraft.

4. Cooked Porkchop

Hunger Points Restored: 4

Saturation: 12.8

Acquired from: Setting pigs on fire, raw porkchop + fire; trading

Again, you might be wondering why such simple cooking of meat will be on this list. Well, as a matter of fact, it ranks in 5th place with a saturation ratio of 1.6.

This means that most of the food below this food is obsolete and insignificant compared to the amount of nutrition it gives to the player.

Remember, you’re playing Survival and Hardcore, not some casual mining or sorting out the best food according to their best value.

The abundance of pigs alone in this game makes up for its superior quality as a top 4 Food Item in Minecraft. Also, it’s super easy to obtain.

You’re more likely to encounter pigs than rabbits, so there’s your fact to top all that.

3. Golden Apple

Hunger Points Restored: 2

Saturation: 9.6

Acquired from: Apples + 8 gold nuggets, treasure chests around the world

Another expensive yet good food item that compensates for the crafting costs it puts you in.

This golden apple is a very expensive version of regular apples, but you know, it’s a gold apple, surely this gives something, right? Yes, you’re right.

It restores 2 Hunger Points, an average 9.6 Saturation points, and 5 seconds of Regeneration and 2 minutes of Absorption.

This costly fruit doesn’t come cheap but doesn’t offer anything, so it’s sort of a win-win unless you’re talking about the better version of itself.

2. Enchanted Golden Apple

Hunger Points Restored: 2

Saturation: 9.6

Acquired from: Pyramid chests, dungeon chests, mansion, and mineshaft chests

This supreme golden apple is no longer craftable. You can only obtain one of these rare fruits from chests all over the world.

It’s surprisingly good, considering it’s enchanted, which comes with several buffs which are:

Regeneration II and IV for 20 seconds and 30 seconds, respectively.
Absorption, Resistance, and Fire Resistances for 2 minutes, 5 minutes, and 5 minutes, respectively.

All the good buffs you need in the latter stages of the game, especially when you’re up against ender dragons and whatever hellspawn creatures are there.

1. Steak

Hunger Points Restored: 8

Saturation: 12.8

Acquired from: Setting cows ablaze, raw beef from cows; trading

Yes. This is the top Food Item in Minecraft. Why? It’s because of the number of cows you’ll encounter in this game. You’re more likely to encounter cows more than pigs since most of the cows roam a lot in plains and even forests.

It’s even surprising how you’ll almost always meet a cow at the start of most games, which isn’t even 200 meters away from your spawn point.

Normally, you’ll see other guides putting the Enchanted Golden Apples at the top of their list, which is true.

EGAs are top-tier Food Items, but you’re almost always guaranteed that you wouldn’t find any of these rare items in the first one hour of your playtime, whereas cows will always appear even if you don’t look out for them.

Set one of these juicy animals, and you’ll never have to worry about Hunger ever again.

Saturation and Exhaustion

Saturation and Exhaustions are two “bars” that aren’t visible. In simpler terms, Saturation works as the “second-level” of your Hunger Points, which are visible with icons.

As you do heavier and hunger-intensive tasks, your Saturation levels will start to deplete.

Once it reaches the “empty” level, your Hunger Points will start to move and indicate that its gonna drop any time soon if you don’t stop moving.

Exhaustion level is a different bar. It acts as the “first-level” of Hunger Points. If you do any kind of action, it will start to increase.

Once a threshold is reached, it will reset back to zero, but your Saturation levels will drop. Simply put, if you do any kind of actions such as walking or swinging your sword, you’ll consume Exhaustion.

Once your Exhaustion levels reached a maximum point, it will cut a portion of your Saturation level.

And once your Saturation levels drop to a certain point, it will start to cut a portion of your Hunger points.

It’s important to note the Saturation levels since it keeps you “full” for longer, allowing you to do more jobs and tasks you wouldn’t normally do if you’re just eating to fill your Hunger points.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I think Enchanted Golden Apples are top tier, especially with the bonuses. But playing in Survival and Hardcore means playing smart to survive.

You don’t want to spend all your playtime looking for shiny apples, don’t you? Steak is the top tier solely for its abundance and nutritious value you wouldn’t be able to get if you’re busy crafting food.

Want a faster way to kill cows and produce medium-rare Steaks? Check out our Top 10 Minecraft Sword Enchantments.