How to Eat in Minecraft

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Learn how to find food and how to eat it to gain Saturation bonuses

Co-authored by Zac Churchill

Last Updated: November 19, 2024 References

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Finding Food

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Eating Food (Desktop)

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Eating Food (Minecraft PE)

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Eating Food Effectively

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Q&A

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Tips

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Warnings

In the earlier days on Minecraft, the hunger mechanic was not implemented. However, developers began to think of adding a challenge to the Survival Mode, and thus, they added the hunger mechanic. In short, a player in Survival Mode or Hardcore Mode must eat food to restore their hunger bars. If the amount of hunger bars is too low, the player cannot sprint, and if the hunger bars are completely depleted, the player will begin losing health. No food means death, so you must learn how to eat in Minecraft.

How to Eat Food in Minecraft (Desktop Version)

Start the game in Survival Mode, then open your inventory and drag the food you want to eat to the hotbar at the bottom of your screen. Press the hotbar number to hold the food in your hand, then press and hold the right-click button on your mouse to eat it.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Finding Food

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1
Kill animals for meat. Many animals you find in your Minecraft world will drop meat when killed. All of this meat is safe to eat raw, except chicken meat, which can give you food poisoning. Cooking meat will increase its benefits.
- You can get meat from cows, pigs, chickens, mooshrooms, sheep, and rabbits.
- See Start an Animal Farm on Minecraft for instructions on farming animals for meat.
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Fish for food. If you have a fishing rod, you can fish for food. Raw fish, raw salmon, and clownfish are safe to eat, but pufferfish will cause food poisoning and nausea. Cooking raw fish will increase its benefits.
- See Fish in Minecraft for details on how to fish.
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Harvest crops. Various crops and plants will drop food when harvested. Some crops, such as carrots, potatoes, and melons you can eat immediately. Others, such as wheat, sugar cane, pumpkins and cocoa beans you will need to craft to make food. You can farm wheat, potatoes, carrots, beetroots, apples (by planting trees), pumpkins, and melons. You'll find these plants in various locations throughout your world, though you may be able to find a lot concentrated in village farms.
- See Build a Basic Farm in Minecraft for instructions on creating your own farm to harvest crops.
- Try to find a village. There are many benefits of finding a village.^{[1]
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- All around a village you can find farms filled with many different seeds and grown foods.^{[2]
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- These farms can provide food which can sustain your hunger in the present and in the future.^{[3]
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Eating Food (Desktop)

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Your Hunger bar does not deplete in Creative mode or Peaceful mode.
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Check your Hunger bar. You can only eat when the Hunger bar is not completely full. The only exceptions to this are chorus fruit, golden apples, and milk.^{[4]
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- Your Hunger bar will shake when it begins to lower. Once at least one of your hunger icons starts to deplete, you can eat.^{[5]
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Open your inventory and drag the food item onto your hotbar at the bottom of the screen. Press the hotbar number to select the food and hold it in your hand.
This is usually the right mouse button but can be changed to other keys. Continue holding the button until the food has been completely eaten.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Eating Food (Minecraft PE)

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The Hunger bar does not go down in Creative mode or Peaceful mode, so you won't be able to eat if you're playing either of these.
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Check your Hunger bar. You'll only be able to eat if you Hunger bar is not completely full. The only exceptions to this are golden apples and milk.
- If your Hunger bar is shaking, it will begin lowering. You'll be able to eat once at least the first hunger icon begins to get used up.
If you pick up food without anything in your hands, it will be selected automatically. You can tap the "..." button to open your inventory, tap a hotbar box, then tap your food item to add it to your hotbar. You can then tap it in your hotbar to hold it.
You may have to look around a little bit before you are able to start eating, as you may accidentally be trying to click a block. Press and hold your screen until the food has been eaten.^{[6]
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Part 4

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Eating Food Effectively

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1
Get to know how the Hunger bar works. Although you only see the Hunger bar in the game, there are actually two hunger systems at work: Hunger and Saturation. The Saturation level is hidden from the player but affects how the Hunger bar depletes. The hidden Saturation level needs to completely deplete before your Hunger bar starts to drop. Certain foods give higher Saturation bonuses, allowing you to go longer without having to eat.^{[7]
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- Your Saturation level drops as you perform strenuous activities like sprinting. The Hunger bar will begin to jiggle when your Saturation level has been completely depleted.
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Eat high-Saturation, low-Hunger foods when your bar is almost full. This will give you the largest Saturation bonus, and allow you to go the longest without having to eat again.
- High-Saturation foods include cooked pork chops, steak, cooked mutton, cooked salmon, golden carrots, and golden apples.
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Cook your meats to make them more effective. You can eat any of the raw meat and gain a small amount of food points, but you'll get better results if you cook the meat first. In order to cook meat, you'll need a furnace. You can create a furnace by placing 8 cobblestone blocks around the edge of your crafting grid.
- Once you have a furnace, place some fuel in the bottom box and your raw meat in the top. The meat will be cooked and will give you about 3 times the original Hunger benefit and about 5 times the original Saturation benefit when eaten.
- Cooking chicken is the only way to safely eat it. If you eat raw chicken, you have a 30% chance of getting food poisoning.
- Putting a potato in a furnace will create a baked potato, which has better hunger benefits.
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Craft food items from ingredients. There are a variety of food items that can be created by combining ingredients. These can provide good Hunger recovery, but don't offer as much Saturation. Eat these when your Hunger meter is low to get the best effect:
- Bread - Crafted from 3 wheat.
- Cake - Crafted from 3 milk, 2 sugar, an egg, and 3 wheat.
- Cookie - Crafted from 2 wheat and a cocoa bean.
- Mushroom stew - Crafted from a mushroom and a bowl.
- Pumpkin pie - Crafted from an egg, a sugar, and a pumpkin.
- Rabbit stew - Crafted from a cooked rabbit, a carrot, a baked potato, a mushroom, and a bowl.
- Golden carrot - Crafted from a carrot and 8 gold nuggets.
- Golden apple - Crated from an apple and 8 gold ingots.
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Avoid food poisoning. There are several foods that have a chance to get you sick if you eat them, or don't prepare them properly. When you get food poisoning, you lose 0.5 Hunger units per second for 30 seconds. Drink milk to counteract the effects of food poisoning.^{[8]
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- Raw chicken has a 30% chance of giving you food poisoning. Cook chicken to avoid this.
- Rotten flesh has an 80% chance of giving you food poisoning. There is no way to make it safer.
- Pufferfish has a 100% chance of giving you advanced food poisoning, which will take 1.5 Hunger units per second for 15 seconds. It will also give you Poison IV, which will drop your player health. You cannot cook pufferfish.
- Spider eyes have a 100% chance to give you Poison, which will drop your player health by two full hearts.

Community Q&A

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Question

How do I farm cows?

Community Answer

Surround a large area with fence (don't forget a gate!), then find a minimum of two cows and trap them in the fenced area using wheat (grown or found in a village). When you've got that done, right click the cows with the wheat in hand. This will make a baby cow. It may take the cow 10 minutes or so to grow up.

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How many hunger does pumpkin pie restore?

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Pumpkin pie restores 8 hunger, which is 4 drumsticks.

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How do I milk cows?

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Things you'll need: a cow, an iron bucket. Select the iron bucket. Approach the cow. Right-click (or press the 'Use Item' button if playing on some other platform) on the cow while holding the iron bucket.

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Tips

If you have a cake to eat, it needs to be put on a surface before it can be eaten (You can eat from it 7 times).

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Milk (made by right-clicking a cow with a bucket) will clear status effects on the player. Milk is also used to make a cake.

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You can eat while climbing.

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Warnings

However, wolves can be encouraged to breed by feeding them rotten flesh, so it's not all bad!

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Rotten flesh, spider eyes, raw chicken and poisonous potatoes have a percentage of you getting poisoned if you eat them. Try to avoid these!

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