Food is the material we eat in order to get the materials we need to build tissues and give us energy.

Some kinds of food can be stored in our bodies. Fat is an example. But other kinds cannot be stored, which is why we have to eat all the time.

We cannot make use of all kinds of plant and animals. We cannot digest grass, for example. So we can only eat those parts of plants and animals that our bodies can make use of. However, an animal like a cow can digest grass, while it cannot eat meat. So food to a cow is something different to food for humans.

As more people live in the world, we need to grow more and more food. We do this by studying how plants and animals grow and trying to get more and more from them.

Food science is the study of the food we eat. It may be about how to grow plants or rear animals, or it might be about the way that we digest our food or what causes it to go bad.

Food scientists usually study biology and chemistry at school as a foundation for studying food science at university.