Most Important Staple Foods In The World

According to the FAO, maize, rice, and wheat combine to provide more than half of global caloric intake.

In South Asian countries such as Bangladesh and Myanmar, low income people may derive 90% or more of their calories from rice.

 
 
 
 

Staple Foods

Staple foods are those that constitute the majority of a particular diet, and generally supply virtually all or most of the total intake of energy and nutrients. People usually consume these staple foods daily or multiple times a day. Culture, climate, and trade are all factors that determine the popularity of a certain food. Over 50,000 plants are edible, very few of them make any significant contribution to the human food supply. The overwhelming majority of global staple foods are grains. Corn, rice, and wheat together make up 51% of the world’s caloric intake. Below is a look at these important food staples.

Corn

Indigenous populations in present-day Mexico first domesticated corn around 10,000 years ago. Its long history there explains why it continues to be a staple food today. Nearly every typical Mexican dish revolves around corn in some way, and it is the main ingredient in maize tortillas, for example. With international trade, corn has been spread throughout the world and now makes up a major source of food in Africa, Europe, and the US. People boil and eat it whole, dry and pulverize it to make flour, and cook it in sweetened milk for dessert. It can be processed for other uses that include as ingredients in sweeteners (corn syrup), alcohol (whiskey), and cooking oil. Global calorie intake is 19.5% from corn.

Rice

Rice is the predominant source of nourisment each day for more than 1.6 billion people around the world, from Asia to Latin America to Africa. First domesticated in India and Southeast Asia, people have been growing it for thousands of years. Research shows that Japan first began consuming rice around 100 BC. During Portuguese trade expeditions, it was brought to South America. Rice requires a warm, humid climate for survival and flourishes in floodplains. China, Indonesia, and India are the biggest cultivators. Today, rice makes up 16.5% of global caloric intake

Wheat

The Middle East is where wheat originates, grown in the Ancient Mesopotamian region near present-day Iraq. Researchers believe this was the first domesticated crop, prompting the spread of agriculture, and resulting in rapid increases in human population. The US, China, Russia, India, and France are the largest producers of wheat in the world. Wheat is typically dried and pulverized to make flour. This flour is used to make bread, crackers, pasta, breakfast cereals, and pastries. Its nutritional value is higher, however, when it is consumed whole. Approximately 15% of the world’s calorie intake comes from wheat.

Root and Tuber Crops

Another significant portion of global caloric intake comes from the consumption of roots, which provide 5.3% of humanity's energy intake. Roots, also known as tubers, often grow in climates that are difficult for other crops. Cassava, also called yuca or manioc, is the most common of the tubers. Alone, it provides 2.6% of global calorie intake. Originally from the Amazon region of South America, it has made its way across the world. Diets in both South America and Africa are largely supplemented by this plant. Potatoes, originating in the Andes mountains of South America, make up 1.7% of the world’s calorie consumption. They were introduced to Europe in the 16th Century and became a common food source for those living in poverty. A blight in Ireland caused the Great Famine of the mid-1800’s due to their reliance on this crop. Other common root food sources include sweet potato (.6%) and yams (.4%).

Other Important Staple Foods

Other staple foods around the world include soybeans, sorghum, and plantains. Soybeans originated in East Asia and today are grown in the US and Brazil (among other places). They are an excellent source of protein. Sorghum is a grain that grows in inhospitable climates and is an important crop for people living in semi arid regions of Asia and Africa. Plantains are grown in tropical areas and rainforests throughout Latin America and Africa where they are an important part of the local diet.

Most Important Staple Foods In The World

Rank	Staple Food	Share of Global Caloric Intake From All Sources
1	Maize Corn	19.5%
2	Rice	16.5%
3	Wheat	15.0%
4	Cassava	2.6%
5	Soybeans	2.1%
6	Potatoes	1.7%
7	Sorghum	1.2%
8	Sweet Potato	0.6%
9	Yams	0.4%
10	Plantain	0.3%

Grains of truth: why rice is the world’s best-loved staple

Rice is boring – or so this author thought, until a trip to north-eastern Japan. There he discovered the profound reasons why it is so highly prized the world over

Michael Booth

Fri 20 Oct 2017 12.00 BSTLast modified on Sat 21 Oct 2017 00.10 BST

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 Rice’s true superpower is to comfort and soothe; it does so even while still growing in the paddies Photograph: Yoshitsugu Nishigaki/Sebun Photo/Getty Images/amana images RM

Allow me to introduce you to a legend of the rice world, Katsuyuki Furukawa. He is the greatest rice farmer in Japan, winner of the country’s “best rice” competition for five years in a row, grower of rice so exceptional that, in the end, the organisers asked him very politely not to enter again, and gave him a special diamond lifetime achievement award instead.

His rice tastes really, really good.

I got to know Furukawa-san last year at his small farm, just five paddy fields a couple of hours north of Tokyo in central Fukushima, where he tends his organic, biodynamic crop using – unusually – Chinese herbal medicine for fertiliser. Over two visits, I helped with planting and harvesting along with my teenage sons – partly as research for a book I was writing about Japanese food, but also as a kind of educational field trip for us all.

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The March 2011 tsunami disaster devastated the coastal part of this prefecture, killing almost 16,000 people. Furukawa’s farm is separated from the coast by a mountain range but because of the ensuing nuclear disaster the Japanese stopped buying produce from the entire region, and he very nearly went bankrupt. He managed to keep going with the support of well-wishers and a distinctive Japanese brand of stoicism I have come so much to admire over the years. I wanted my sons to learn about this, as well as simply to experience the work of a rice farmer: a brutal slog in mostly uncooperative conditions that ultimately results in those ridiculously cheap bags of glinting white (or, if you must, brown) grains that we take for granted on our supermarket shelves back home.

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I also had amends to make. Ten years ago I wrote a book about Japanese food without really mentioning rice at all. I knew full well how central it was, not just to Japan’s food culture but to its culture as a whole – in Japanese the word gohan means both “cooked rice” and also “meal”. They use rice to make everything from sake to mochi cakes, with even the waste husk considered a valuable preserving agent. During the Edo period, the Japanese even paid their taxes in rice. And I was aware of the quasi-spiritual place it held at the core of Japanese identity, as indeed rice does in countries from Asia to Africa, the Middle East and beyond. Having asked innumerable Japanese what their favourite meal is, or what they would choose as their last meal, I knew too that “just a bowl of rice” was the most common answer.

But I didn’t write about rice back then, because rice is boring.

At least that’s what I thought. Rice was a bland accompaniment, a waste of stomach space that might be filled by more flavourful, complex, indulgent foods. Plus, according to a some of the prevailing dietary advice, rice was also somehow fattening. For many, polished white rice in particular symbolised empty calories, as most of the vitamins and minerals are lost when you mill the husk.

I have since come to my senses. You don’t need amazing recipes to appreciate the potential of rice; you don’t even need a recipe. As I discovered when I first tasted Furukawa’s rice, a glistening, steaming bowl on its own can itself be a transcendent thing.

Cooks the world over know that rice is a self-effacing support act for other flavours – be it a mere scattering of sesame seeds, to the showstopping heroics of a biryani. Rice amplifies and carries other flavours, allowing them to linger on the palate longer. And let’s not underestimate its most common function: rice is extremely effective at plugging a hunger hole. Italians know it, a billion inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent know it; the Chinese invented it.

But above all, rice’s true superpower is to comfort and soothe. In fact, it does this even while still growing in the paddies. The electric viridescence of a ripening rice paddy is a balm for the eyes. Just looking at that vital grassy green could calm a rattlesnake.

There are snakes (rattle-less, as it happens, but plenty poisonous) in Furukawa’s fields. “There is no point in fighting nature,” he told me, cheerfully. We also encountered little neon green frogs, dragonflies, and loach. At one point he plunged his hand into the paddy’s banks and pulled out a muddy wriggling thing to demonstrate the thriving ecosystem his approach to rice farming fosters. I shrieked like a child as he placed it in my palm and my boys rolled their eyes at their father – not for the first time. I had already disgraced myself with the rice-planting machine as, on Furukawa’s nod, I engaged its motor and the whole thing had lunged forwards, wrenching me from my wellies with an unedifying sucking noise.

My book bears an eponymous promise: to provide the “meaning of rice”. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t really. Rice has as many meanings as there are people on every continent who rely on this miraculous seed – the most popular foodstuff in all the world, its irrigation and cultivation one of humanity’s most enduring achievements – for their sustenance, survival, comfort and pleasure.

• Michael Booth is a freelance journalist and author of several books. His most recent, The Meaning of Rice and Other Tales from the Belly of Japan, is out now (Jonathan Cape); michael-booth.com

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24 of the Best Rice Dishes from All Over the World 

DECEMBER 14, 2015 – 12:00 PM  – 0 COMMENTS

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By WHITNEY BINZEL  @WhitBitsKitchen

(Dinner at the Zoo/Curious Nut/Ciao Florentina)

LAUNCH GALLERY

24 photos

Rice is known as a primary staple food throughout many countries all over the world. It’s also the most important grain consumed by humans with regards to nutrition. There are 40,000 varieties of rice and they vary in shape, color, and size. The hearty grain originated in Asia thousands of years ago, and eventually came to the US in the 1600s.

You’re probably familiar already, but the three classifications of rice are short, medium, and long-grained. Rice should be rinsed until the water is clear before cooking to get rid of excess starch. It can also be soaked before cooking to reduce cooking time and stickiness.

Some of the most popular rice varieties include jasmine, basmati, japonica, wholegrain, parboiled, and generic long-grain.

Jasmine, also known as Thai rice, has a slightly sticky texture when cooked and is very fragrant. Carolina Jasmine is a nice brand to go with if you’re looking for a great quality Jasmine. Basmati, also known as the Prince of Rice, is very long, slender, and fragrant. Varieties if basmati include white and brown, and nowadays there’s even smoked basmati. A popular brand for basmati is Amira. Japonica is mainly grown in California and is used in a lot of Japanese and Caribbean cuisine. A popular brand being Lundberg. Wholegrain, or brown rice, has a nutty flavor and chewy texture when cooked. Lundberg won the taste test according to Cook’s Illustrated.  Parboiled rice, also known as “ready-rice”, is ready in only a few minutes. Uncle Ben’s is the most popular throughout the US. Last, but not least is everyday long-grain. Once again, according to Cook’s Illustrated, Lundberg beat the competition by a long shot.

Rice also plays a significant culture role in many places throughout the world. For example, throughout many of the world’s cultures, rice is thrown towards the bride and groom at the end of a wedding. Some cultures even have a rice deity. Pretty interesting, huh?

With that said, I’ve put together a great list of the best rice recipes from all over the world. After all, rice is an international staple food.

Whitney is the recipe developer and photographer behind WhitBit’s Indian Kitchen. She’s always been interested in different cultures and foods, but ever since she spent three months traveling through India, she hasn’t looked back. Whitney shows that you don’t have to be afraid of trying new cuisine or getting a little messy in the kitchen. 

Interested in trying Indian food? Right now Whitney has an Indian Christmas Giveaway going on. Click here to check it out.

 Rice Gallary;-