You must have seen your parents taking tea with breakfast. Have you ever noticed how tea is prepared? You must have seen her adding milk, sugar, and tea to boiling water. Do you know what these things are collectively called? Ingredients! We use different ingredients to make different food, now let us learn what are the sources of our food and how do we get our ingredients.

To prepare rice, raw rice is boiled in water. So raw rice and water are the two ingredients to prepare boiled rice. What else do you eat with rice? Well, you must also know the ingredients of the two most commonly consumed food items- chapatti and daal. Chapatti is prepared from wheat flour by preparing dough of wheat flour in water. So, the two ingredients of chapatti are wheat flour and water.

Similarly, the ingredients of daal are pulses, water, salt, and spices. We can thus infer that �An ingredient is a part of a mixture that is added to prepare a drink or a dish.� So what are the sources of our food ingredients? Let's learn about different sources of food in this blog.

Sources of food ingredients: Animals

We know that like plants, animals are also rich sources of food. We have also learned about the various plant-derived food items. Let us now learn about the various ingredients of food that we obtain from animals. Food ingredients like milk, eggs, and meat products including chicken, fish, prawns, pork, etc come from animals.

Let us learn about the sources of food items more specifically. Well, animals like cows, goats, lambs, and pigs are reared, that is, raised and taken care of by humans for their flesh and other products like milk. The eggs of birds like ducks and hens are also consumed as food while birds like hen, duck, and turkey are consumed for their meat.

Then there are animals like cows, buffaloes, and goats which provide us with milk which is a rich source of proteins, vitamins, and minerals required for the proper growth and nourishment of the body. The milk is also used in the preparation of dairy products like curd, butter, cheese, and cream. Are you aware of where does honey comes from or how it is produced? Let�s find out.

You will be amazed to know that the honey is prepared by insects called bees. Bees collect nectar from flowers, convert it into honey and then store it in their hive for use all throughout the year. This honey is consumed by humans as a food ingredient. Thus insects like bees also contribute by producing natural sweeteners like honey.

Sources of food ingredients: Plants

We have learned earlier that plants and animals are the two main sources of food. Do you want to know more about what food items are actually obtained from plants? Let�s find it out in this module. But first, let me see if you can identify the ingredients of this vegetable dish. This dish is called mixed vegetables.

And here are the ingredients for making this dish. Let�s see if you can identify them? Well�these are onions, tomatoes, capsicum, cabbage, cauliflower, potatoes, beans, carrots, and peas. Other than these ingredients, salt, spices, and oil are also used for preparing this vegetable dish. Well�can you tell what these ingredients are called?

Yes, these are different vegetables, and they are obtained from different plants. Plants are a rich source of food ingredients. I am sure you all know that plants are a source of not only vegetables but different fruits as well. But can you tell the source of rice or wheat that you eat?

Well, you must have seen wheat or paddy fields. This is where we get these grains from. We can therefore conclude that food ingredients like grains, cereals, vegetables, and fruits are all obtained from plants. However, you must always remember that not all parts of a plant are suitable to be eaten. We consume only some parts of a plant.

We sometimes eat the fruits, leaves, roots, stems,s and sometimes even the flowers and seeds of a plant. Let us understand this better with the help of some examples. Apart from the various fruits and vegetables that we eat, there are other edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans as food. Here�have a look at these plants.

These are turnip, carrot, beetroot, and radish plants. What we consume is the roots of these plants. Similarly, we eat the stem of sugarcane and lotus.  Leaves of coriander, spinach, mustard are consumed as food and also, the beans, cereals, and nuts that we eat are the seeds of various plants. It is interesting to know that some plants have multiple edible parts.

Can you think of any such plant? Well�Banana, Mustard, and Pumpkin are some examples of plants with many edible parts. The fruit of banana is used to prepare a dessert or eaten as such, while the stem and leaves are also used to prepare vegetable dishes.

Similarly, in mustard plants, the leaves are eaten as a vegetable, seeds are used for flavoring, and the mustard oil derived from seeds is used for cooking food. Likewise, in Pumpkin, not only the fruit but also the flowers and leaves are consumed as vegetables. The seeds are also roasted and consumed as snacks.

Sources of food ingredients: Seafood

Now that you know that there are broadly two sources of food- Plants and Animals. Let us further discuss some animal-derived food items. Have you ever heard of seafood? You must have.

There are some varieties of fish that are consumed as food. Salmon, Tuna, Catfish, Sardines, Pomfret, etc are some examples of edible varieties of fish. Besides, prawns, squids, shrimps, and lobsters are other water animals consumed as food. Nutritionally, these are important sources of proteins.

Sources of ingredients: Poultry

Do you know where do we get the ingredients for preparing different food items? Well�there are various plant and animal sources of food. Some food ingredients are obtained from plants and some like milk, eggs, chicken, prawns, fish, pork, and such others come from animal sources. Have you ever heard of poultry?

Well, poultry is a place where birds are reared by humans for eggs and then killed for their flesh. So, we get some of the ingredients like eggs and meat of birds from the poultry. However, it must be noted that humans do not consume the meat and eggs of all the birds. Birds like hen, duck, and turkey are consumed for their meat. Hens and ducks eggs are most commonly used as food.