Best Food Sources in Minecraft (Ranked by Efficiency & Hunger Points)

If this is your first time playing Minecraft, you need to know how the food mechanism works. It isn’t the only source to replenish your hunger, but also keeps you alive, regenerates your health, and lets you sprint, mine, and fight without constantly stopping to snack.

Whether you are fighting a mob or exploring the Nether, the types of food you consume can make a huge difference. In this game, you will find tens of food sources, such as simple bread, potatoes, and cooked or raw meat from animals.

Some of these keep you full for long and increase your hunger bar significantly, while some may not do that job well. So, we will discuss everything you need to know about how the hunger mechanism works and the best food you can consume for your survival.

Here is everything you need to know:

How Food Works in Minecraft: The Science of Hunger & Saturation

Before we can start with our list of the best food sources, it is important to understand the science behind hunger and saturation levels in Minecraft.

Most players focus only on the visible hunger bar, those ten little drumsticks at the bottom of your screen, but there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes, collectively adding more depth to the game.

There are three metrics that we will be discussing and then ranking food accordingly.

1. Hunger Points

This is what you need to be looking at. There is a hunger bar right beside the heart bar with a 10 drumstick symbol. Here, each drumstick equals 2 hunger points, giving you a total of 20 points of hunger.

Every action you take in the game slowly drains this value, even if you don’t notice it right away. Here is how it works:

• When your hunger bar is full, you can sprint, regenerate health, and perform all actions normally.
• When your hunger drops below 18 points or 9 drumsticks, your natural health regeneration stops. You won’t heal from damage unless you eat again.
• At 6 points (3 drumsticks) or lower, you lose the ability to sprint and even walk properly.
• When it reaches 0, your health begins to drain; slowly at first, but continuously, until you eat or die (unless you’re in Peaceful mode).

Hence, food plays a huge role and determining how you perform in the game. The hunger bar is more than just replenishing your hunger; it directly controls your movement speed, your healing rate, and how efficiently you can keep exploring or fighting.

For example, if you are fully armored with the best weapons, but you have no food source left with you, you will eventually die.

2. Saturation

We have another metric system by which we will measure the best food, and that is Saturation. There isn’t any visible bar for you to see for this metric, but it still plays a huge role.

You might eat a loaf of bread and a steak, see the same number of drumsticks fill up, and think they’re doing the same job, but they’re not.

This is because you also need to know the Saturation level or points of each food, along with the hunger points. The invisible meter determines how long you stay satisfied before getting hungry again.

Let’s see how it works:

• The game first drains your saturation when you perform actions (like sprinting or mining).
• Only after your saturation reaches 0 does the game start lowering your visible hunger bar (the drumsticks).

So, two foods might fill your bar to the full, but one could keep you full for minutes, while the other might make you hungry again in seconds.

Here is an example:

• Cake: Fills your hunger bar by 14 points, but has low saturation (2.8)
• Steak: Fills your hunger bar by 8 points, and has high saturation (12.8)

Overall, the Saturation metric avoids less frequent eating and saves resources and time along with it. Moreover, since regeneration drains hunger, high saturation supports healing for longer.

3. Exhaustion: Why You Get Hungry Faster

There is another factor that a lot of players ignore or do not know about, especially if you are a beginner. Similar to Saturation, Exhaustion too is an invisible bar that greatly affects your overall health and food choices.

Let’s take this in a real-life scenario: Exhaustion is basically when you do any kind of activity, such as walking and running. It is simply when you get tired and you desperately need to rest or eat some food.

Similarly, in Minecraft, we also have an Exhaustion metric system; whenever you mine, sprint, or even engage in combat, all of these build up exhaustion points. When those points reach a certain threshold, the game subtracts from your saturation first, and once that’s gone, it starts draining your hunger bar.

This is how it works:

• Every time you perform any activity, you gain exhaustion points. For example, Walking increases it by 0.1.
• When Exhaustion points reach 4, the game deducts 1 point from the Saturation.
• Then, if the Saturation reaches 0, the game will reduce the Hunger Points by 1.
• After this, your exhaustion meter resets to 0 and starts building up again.

This is how the cycle goes: action → exhaustion → saturation loss → hunger loss.

Let’s also see which activity adds more to the Exhaustion level:

So if your hunger bar seems to drop way too fast even after eating, it’s not because your food is bad; it’s because your exhaustion is through the roof from running, jumping, or healing too much.

How Will We Judge The Best Food Source

Now that we know the different mechanics behind hunger, which are the Hunger Points, Saturation Points, and Exhaustion, let’s now understand how we will judge the best food sources.

We will not be using the Hunger system as the only metric in this guide. Instead, it looks at everything that affects real-world gameplay: how long it keeps you full, how easy it is to obtain, and how useful it is in survival or Hardcore mode.

For example, even though Suspicious Stew might be a decent food in terms of both Saturation and Hunger Points, it is incredibly difficult to stack up in the inventory, something which is not ideal for Survival mode.

1. Hunger Points

This is easy. The first thing anyone would see is how much meat icon the food will fill up. For example, each drumstick on your hunger bar equals 2 hunger points, so a steak, which restores 8 hunger points, fills four drumsticks.

But hold on! This does not determine which is the best food, since it does not mean that steak has a better saturation level. It just means your bar fills up faster, not that it’ll stay full.

2. Saturation (Hidden Fullness Duration)

This is where the real efficiency lies. Saturation decides how long you stay full before your hunger starts dropping again.

Foods with high saturation, like steak (12.8) or golden carrots (14.4), keep you satisfied for much longer than low-saturation options like bread (6.0) or melon slices (1.2).

For survival and long journeys, high-saturation foods are game-changers. You eat less often, save time, and maintain steady regeneration even through tough battles.

3. Ease of Crafting and Farming

Hunger and Saturation aren’t the only metrics, but it also depends largely on how easy you can craft that certain food, and the efficiency of farming them more.

Let’s check out a few examples to understand how this works:

• Steak and Porkchops which are considered to be the best food source, are incredibly easy to farm and collect. Once you set up an animal farm, you can mass-produce them.
• Golden Carrots, on the other hand, are a much better food source than the former, but they require gold to craft, which isn’t an easy item to obtain.

A good food should be sustainable. If you can automate or farm it easily, it climbs higher on the list.

4. Utility and Other Effects

There are certain food items that not only replenish your hunger but also have multiple uses that make them better than other food sources.

For example:

• Golden Apples grant Regeneration II and Absorption, making them invaluable during boss fights.
• Suspicious Stew (Oxeye Daisy) instantly restores full saturation, letting you recover from exhaustion in seconds.
• Honey Bottles remove poison effects, which is handy in caves and jungles.

Even if these foods aren’t practical for everyday use, their situational power earns them a place in the rankings. And you can always use them in emergencies.

So we have four criteria now that will determine which food will rank the highest. You can also add another criterion, too, which is the practicality of it, such as Rabbit Stew restores a ton of hunger but doesn’t stack, so it clogs your inventory.

We will be considering all these and learn about every food we can find in Minecraft.

All Minecraft Foods Explained

So we will now categorize all the food currently available in Minecraft, along with their Hunger and Saturation points and other metrics we mentioned above.

We will first start with Cooked Meat, which is considered to be the best among all.

1. Steak

Many players will agree to the fact that Steak is a top-tier food source and one of the best out there. There are multiple reasons for it.

• Hunger Restored: 8 points (4 drumsticks)
• Saturation: 12.8
• Renewable: Yes (Cows)
• Stackable: Yes (64)

It restores a large portion of your hunger bar and has excellent saturation, meaning you can go for long stretches without needing to eat again. Steaks come from cows, and you can easily set up an automated cow farm at your base that will help you collect a ton of this excellent food source.

If you are not willing to set up a farm, you can instead use a sword with Looting III + Fire Aspect enchantments to get cooked steak instantly while collecting leather.

2. Cooked Porkchops

Next, we have cooked Porchops. They have stats very similar to those of Steaks, which makes them equivalent to them in terms of being the best food source as well. Here are the stats for reference.

• Hunger Restored: 8 points (4 drumsticks)
• Saturation: 12.8
• Renewable: Yes (Pigs)
• Stackable: Yes (64)

Again, as you can see, it's pretty easy to set up a pig farm right beside a cow farm and get an unlimited supply of cooked porkchops. The only real difference is that pigs don’t drop leather, so their usefulness slightly drops in the long term.

To breed pigs, you can use a plant-based food source such as carrots, potatoes, or beetroots.

3. Cooked Chicken

In our list of cooked meat, we have Cooked Chicken. First, let’s look at their stats.

• Hunger Restored: 6 points (3 drumsticks)
• Saturation: 7.2
• Renewable: Yes (Chickens)
• Stackable: Yes

A lot of players prefer setting up a chicken farm rather than cows and pigs since they are much easier to set up with an added advantage. With a few dispensers, hoppers, and lava buckets, you can make a fully automatic chicken farm that gives infinite cooked chicken and feathers.

The added advantage for this food source is that you can use eggs in dispensers to spawn chickens automatically, making it cheap and an endless source.

4. Cooked Mutton

This may not be the best food out there, but we can surely add it to the mid-tier. Here are the stats to look at:

• Hunger Restored: 6 points
• Saturation: 9.6
• Renewable: Yes (Sheep)
• Stackable: Yes

To get cooked mutton, set up a proper sheep farm and add some hoppers with lava to get cooked mutton. Along with this, sheep also give wool, which is again super useful overall. As a beginner, this might be a great food source for survival.

5. Cooked Rabbit

Unlike all the other cooked meats we have discussed, cooked rabbit meat is much rarer since they are very area-specific and a bit difficult to farm. But let’s look at the stats:

• Hunger Restored: 5 points
• Saturation: 6.0
• Renewable: Yes (Rabbits)
• Stackable: Yes

The stats aren’t the best either compared to the others, but still decent enough. They are difficult to hunt as well, since they tend to run away from you at a much faster speed, and as a beginner, it might not feel worth it.

6. Cooked Cod

Similar to the stats we have seen for Rabbit meat, Cooked Cod, which is derived from fish, has similar ones. Here it is:

• Hunger Restored: 5 points
• Saturation: 6.0
• Renewable: Yes (Fishing)
• Stackable: Yes

This is a great food source, especially in the early game. You can simply go to any water body and try catching fish. Surely, it’s easy to collect with a bucket or rod, but it doesn’t compete with land meats in efficiency.

7. Cooked Salmon

This is yet another meat derived from a particular fish Salmon. Unlike normal fish, this has a much higher Saturation, almost similar to Cooken Mutton.

• Hunger Restored: 5 points
• Saturation: 9.6
• Renewable: Yes (Fishing Salmon)
• Stackable: Yes

Again, the same setup can be used to catch Salmon from the water bodies and then cook them for their meat. If you’re fishing a lot for enchantments or XP, salmon will pile up naturally; you can use them as backup food.

So we will now be moving to our next section, which will talk about all the early game food sources, which are raw meat.

8. Raw Beef/Raw Porchop

Beef and pork chops, as we all know, come from cows and Pigs, respectively, and they are considered to be the best early game food. The moment you land in the game, you can find it within minutes of exploration.

• Hunger Restored: 3 points (1.5 drumsticks)
• Saturation: 1.8
• Renewable: Yes (Cows and Pigs)
• Stackable: Yes

Looking at the stats, it surely isn’t the best. 3 points are pretty basic, but then, as a beginner, you may not be able to craft a furnace or anything to cook or even craft other food sources.

A major downside of this is that the Saturation level is pretty low with this, and it might drop down very quickly, keeping you hungry for more. Hence, if possible, in the early game, always cook raw beef over a campfire when possible. It’s fuel-free and efficient.

9. Raw Mutton/Raw Chicken

Another early-game food source that you can easily find everywhere you can see.

• Hunger Restored: 2 points (1 drumstick)
• Saturation: 1.2
• Renewable: Yes (Sheep and Chicken)
• Stackable: Yes

Truly speaking, the stats are not good at all. They give only 2 points, which is nothing in the survival mode; in fact, the saturation is truly the worst. But looking at other factors that you can easily create a sheep or chicken farm and get an unlimited supply of this, might not be that bad.

Eventually, you can use it in emergencies, when you have nothing to eat but this.

Note: You need to be careful since there is about a 30% chance that eating raw chicken can poison you, and instead reduce the hunger points rather than increasing them.

10. Raw Rabbit

Similar to the cooked Rabbit, this too isn’t the most feasible food you can consume or even acquire that easily. Rabbits are extremely difficult to catch since they tend to run away when you approach them closely.

Let’s look at the stats:

• Hunger Restored: 3 points (1.5 drumsticks)
• Saturation: 1.8
• Renewable: Yes (Rabbits)
• Stackable: Yes

Looking at the stats, you can measure that they are decent in emergencies. You can even use Looting with your sword to increase your chances of getting multiple drops per rabbit, including a rabbit’s foot for potion brewing.

11. Raw Cod/Salmo

You can skip this entirely, even during emergencies. Raw Cod or Salmon are the worst when it comes to satisfying your hunger and the weakest meat source out there.

• Hunger Restored: 2 points
• Saturation: 0.4
• Renewable: Yes (Fishing)
• Stackable: Yes

The Saturation level is only 0.4, which is the least among all the foods we have seen yet. But if you’re living near water and haven’t set up farms, it’s still renewable.

Now, let’s look at all the plant-based food sources for all the vegetarian players out there (Just Kidding).

12. Bread

When we talk about plan-based food, the first thing any player would start with is Bread. It is pretty easy to craft and takes very few resources.

• Hunger Restored: 5 points
• Saturation: 6.0
• Renewable: Yes (Wheat Farm)
• Stackable: Yes

As you can see from the stats, they look pretty good considering you can easily set up a wheat farm and craft an infinite amount of bread for your travel. As a beginner, this might just be perfect for you.

13. Carrot

Carrots are generally not something players prefer as a food source directly. They only have 3 hunger points and a low saturation level.

• Hunger Restored: 3 points
• Saturation: 3.6
• Renewable: Yes (Farming)
• Stackable: Yes

It does have and advantage of being easily available directly from the villages and through setting up a carrot farm, but not worth it overall. There are many better options out there.

14. Golden Carrot

Now, this is what we call a perfect food source. You will need a lot of carrots for this, so the carrot farm might be worthwhile after all.

• Hunger Restored: 6 points
• Saturation: 14.4
• Renewable: Yes (Carrots + Gold Nuggets)
• Stackable: Yes

Golden carrots are the best stackable food in Minecraft. They don’t fill your hunger bar completely, but they have the second-highest saturation in the game, meaning they keep you full longer than almost anything else.

To craft this food source, you will need a lot of gold nuggets, which can only be obtained if you have a gold farm for a constant supply. This is not your early game food.

15. Potato

Similar to carrots, you absolutely can ignore this food source. Even if you are desperate for some food, this will not work. Here is why:

• Hunger Restored: 1 point
• Saturation: 0.6
• Renewable: Yes (Farming)
• Stackable: Yes

It only restores one hunger point, which is only half a drunkstick, and the Saturation is even worse. The only way you can use potatoes is for baking or breeding pigs. Furthermore, you can bake the potatoes for a better value. Let’s learn more about that below.

16. Baked Potato

• Hunger Restored: 5 points
• Saturation: 6.0
• Renewable: Yes
• Stackable: Yes

Baked potatoes are the upgrade to raw ones and a solid early- to mid-game food. You can easily set up a proper potato farm in your base or in any village, giving you thousands within minutes.

17. Apple, Golden Apple, and Enchanted Golden Apple

Apple is the earliest natural food source you can find in the game. They have a small chance to drop from oak and dark oak leaves when broken or decayed, and they’re perfectly edible in their raw form.

Here are the stats for Apples:

• Hunger Restored: 4 points
• Saturation: 2.4
• Renewable: Yes (Tree Drops)
• Stackable: Yes

But this particular fruit is rare and has a low chance of dropping from a tree; hence, it may not be the most reliable source of food in bulk. This is where the Golden Apple comes into play. Similar to Golden Carrots, they may not have higher Hunger points, but the Saturation level is something to talk about.

Here are the stats for Golden Apple:

• Hunger Restored: 4 points
• Saturation: 9.6
• Renewable: Yes (Apple + Gold Nugget)
• Stackable: Yes
• Effects: Regeneration II (5 seconds) and Absorption I (2 minutes)

Golden Apple is a literal lifesaver since it not only gives you a higher saturation but also gives instant regeneration and extra health, making it a staple for boss fights, raids, and Hardcore survival.

The only downside for both Golden Apple and Golden Carrot is that they require 8 gold nuggets to craft one such food source, which may not be easy to collect or even farm.

We have another variant of Apples, which is an Enchanted Golden Apple. It is one of the rarest items in Minecraft and cannot be crafted or renewed by any player whatsoever. Here are the stats:

• Hunger Restored: 4 points
• Saturation: 9.6
• Renewable: No (Only through Loot)
• Stackable: Yes
• Effects: Regeneration V, Absorption IV, Resistance, and Fire Resistance (5 minutes)

Although Enchanted Apple has the same Hunger Points and Saturation, the reason they are so rare is because of the multiple effects it gives, such as Regeneration, Absorption, Resistance, and Fire Resistance.

Furthermore, they are only available in loots obtained from chests in ancient cities, bastions, mineshafts, and dungeons.

18. Beetroot

Another weak food in the game. It has very similar stats to those of a Potato. It does not serve the purpose of keeping you full in any manner.

• Hunger Restored: 1 point
• Saturation: 1.2
• Renewable: Yes (Farming/Villages)
• Stackable: Yes

You can, however, create a beetroot farm for one purpose, which is to cook Beetroot Soup. Apart from that, there are villagers with whom you can trade beetroot for other emeralds.

19. Beetroot Soup

This is what you need Beetroot for. Beetroot Soup is a good step up from the raw beetroot and has good statistics except for one thing.

• Hunger Restored: 6 points
• Saturation: 7.2
• Renewable: Yes
• Stackable: No

Based on the stats, you cannot stack Beetroot soup in the inventory, which is a huge disadvantage. This will only clog the inventory, and it cannot be stored in bulk. Surely you can have 1-2 of these for emergency purposes, but having a beetroot farm for this is not worth it.

20. Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin pie restores a ton of hunger but has surprisingly low saturation.

• Hunger Restored: 8 points
• Saturation: 4.8
• Renewable: Yes (Pumpkin + Egg + Sugar)
• Stackable: Yes

Statistically, it is a good food source. It’s one of the few plant-based foods that fills 4 drumsticks, making it good for quick eating. You can build an automated sugarcane, pumpkin, and chicken farm for all the supplies needed for this food.

Apart from the above-mentioned food items, there are a few other items that we feel are not the best to be consumed and have no other purpose as well, such as Melon Slice, Sweet Berries, Glow Berries, and Dried Kelp.

Moving on, let’s also discuss a few underrated food items.

21. Mushroom Stew

It is one of our favourite early game food sources. The stats are pretty decent, and it also does not require that many ingredients.

• Hunger Restored: 6 points
• Saturation: 7.2
• Renewable: Yes (Mushrooms)
• Stackable: No
• Crafted With: 1 Red Mushroom + 1 Brown Mushroom + 1 Bowl

It fills a good chunk of your hunger bar, requires no smelting, and the ingredients are renewable. The biggest advantage? You can gather both mushrooms easily in swamps, dark forests, or caves early in survival.

If you ever find a Mooshroom (the red cow), you can get infinite Mushroom Stew by right-clicking it with a bowl. That’s one of the best passive food sources in the game, no crafting, no farming, no fuel.

22. Rabbit Stew

Another excellent source of food. Unlike cooked and raw rabbit, this has much better stats both in hunger points and saturation.

• Hunger Restored: 10 points
• Saturation: 12.0
• Renewable: Yes (Rabbits)
• Stackable: No
• Crafted With: 1 Cooked Rabbit + 1 Baked Potato + 1 Carrot + 1 Mushroom + 1 Bowl

The reason this is an amazing food source is that it will almost half your hunger bar, which is more than enough to survive in the game. Even the Saturation level or points are above par.

The only issue with this particular item is that it is a pain when it comes to crafting the stew. Every Rabbit Stew requires Cooked Rabbit, Baked Potato, Carrot, Mushroom, and Bowl. All of these are a lot to gather or even farm.

Furthermore, it is not stackable in the inventory, thus you can simply have a few of them and not go for crafting them in bulk.

23. Suspicious Stew

This is one of the most unpredictable food sources in Minecraft, but also considered to be in the top tier for multiple reasons.

• Hunger Restored: 6 points
• Saturation: 7.2
• Renewable: Yes
• Stackable: No
• Crafted With: 1 Red Mushroom + 1 Brown Mushroom + 1 Bowl + 1 Flower

It’s crafted using a red mushroom, a brown mushroom, a bowl, and one flower, and that flower determines what effect the stew gives when eaten. Although the stats are pretty average, because of the unique status effects, a lot of players love this food source.

Here’s a full breakdown of every possible flower and what it does:

And that is all from the list of foods we will be talking about in this guide. Surely there are a few more of the foods that you might be wondering why we have not mentioned, such as Honey, Cake, etc. These are a bit unconventional, and people hardly go for these daily when it comes to replenishing their hunger.

Final Tier List: Every Food Ranked (S to F)

Before we go, let’s take all the food and rank them based on which one you can go for. We will be considering all the metrics above and ranking them accordingly.

These are only our assumptions, and they may be different from what feels easier and better for you.