3,831 articles
Ultra-Processed People
Ultra-Processed People (2023) is Chris van Tulleken's nonfiction book arguing that ultra-processed food (UPF), defined by the NOVA system, drives overeating and chronic disease, supported by a month-long self-experiment.
Umami
Umami (うま味) is the fifth basic taste, the savory taste of glutamate, inosinate, and guanylate, identified by Kikunae Ikeda in kombu dashi in 1908 and now recognized in foods from cheese to soy sauce.
Umeboshi (梅干し)
Umeboshi (梅干し), Japanese salted and sun-dried pickled ume (Prunus mume) fruit, a Heian-era medicine and preserved food; traditional types carry about 20% salt, Wakayama's Nanko-ume is the signature variety, and pickling yields sour umezu brine.
Underberg
Underberg: German herbal digestif bitter from Rheinberg, made since 1846 by Hubert Underberg; 20 ml paper-wrapped bottle, 44% ABV, secret 43-country herb recipe, FDA-classified food product popular in US bars.
Unilever
Unilever, British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company formed 1 January 1930 from the Lever Brothers and Margarine Unie merger; sells Dove, Knorr, Hellmann's and other brands in 190 countries; €50.5 billion 2025 turnover; demerged Ice Cream as The Magnum Ice Cream Company in December 2025.
Unit operation
Unit operation: the basic step of an industrial or food process (mixing, heating, drying, filtration), based on momentum, heat, or mass transfer, subject to mass and energy conservation laws, distinct from whole process design.
United Breweries Group
United Breweries Group (UB Group), Bengaluru-headquartered Indian brewing conglomerate founded 1915 by Thomas Leishman; built by the Mallya family, now with Heineken holding ~61.5% of United Breweries Limited, maker of Kingfisher beer, and Diageo controlling former flagship United Spirits.
United Food and Commercial Workers
United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), North American labor union of 1.2 million grocery, meatpacking, retail, and food processing workers, formed by the 1979 merger of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and the Retail Clerks.
United Fruit Company
United Fruit Company (1899–1970), American banana giant formed by the Keith–Boston Fruit merger, nicknamed El Pulpo; vertically integrated plantations, railroads, and the Great White Fleet; became United Brands in 1970 and Chiquita Brands International.
United Spirits
United Spirits Limited (USL, Diageo India), NSE: UNITDSPR, is India's largest spirits company, 55.88%-owned by Diageo plc. Formed from McDowell and Shaw Wallace mergers, acquired by Diageo in 2013-14, with FY26 revenue of ₹12,467 crore.
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), founded May 15, 1862 under Lincoln and called the People's Department, is the cabinet agency overseeing farming, forestry, food safety, rural development, and nutrition programs.
United States Secretary of Agriculture
United States Secretary of Agriculture: head of the USDA, a Cabinet post created in 1889 when the 1862 department's Commissioner became Secretary; 33rd Secretary is Brooke L. Rollins (2025).
UNKO MUSEUM OKINAWA
UNKO MUSEUM OKINAWA (うんこミュージアム OKINAWA) is a poop-themed interactive museum opened September 19, 2025 on the 5th floor of AEON MALL Okinawa Rycom, the third permanent Unko Museum venue and Japan's southernmost, run by T museum and KAYAC.
Unleavened bread
Unleavened bread, including matzo, chapati, roti, and tortilla, is bread baked without yeast or baking powder. It is the oldest bread known, dating to 14,400 years ago, and is ritual food in Passover.
Uogashi
Uogashi (魚河岸) is a Japanese word for a riverside fish market, and in Tokyo the name of the Nihonbashi fish market that ran from the early Edo period until 1923.
Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair (1878–1968), American muckraking novelist and socialist activist, author of The Jungle (1906), whose exposé of Chicago meatpacking spurred the 1906 Pure Food and Drug and Meat Inspection Acts; Pulitzer winner for Dragon's Teeth and 1934 EPIC candidate for California governor.
Urban agriculture
Urban agriculture: growing, processing, and distributing food in cities and suburbs, also called urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA). Includes community gardens, rooftop farms, hydroponics, and vertical production; yields comparable to conventional agriculture.
Utility knife
Utility knife: a hand tool with a short retractable, replaceable razorlike blade for cutting cardboard, drywall, carpet, and more; also called box cutter (US) or Stanley knife (UK), with a separate 4–7 inch kitchen meaning.
Uzbek plov
Uzbek plov (osh, palov): Uzbekistan's national rice dish, cooked as zirvak of meat, onion and carrot layered with rice in a kazan; UNESCO-listed in 2016, with distinct regional styles.
V. G. Siddhartha
V. G. Siddhartha (Veerappa Siddhartha Hegde) was an Indian coffee planter who founded Café Coffee Day, India's largest coffee chain, and chaired Coffee Day Enterprises; he died in July 2019 amid group debt after selling the Mindtree stake to Larsen & Toubro.
Vacherin (dessert)
Vacherin (dessert), a French meringue dessert; also vacherin glacé. A decorated meringue or almond-paste ring filled with ice cream, Chantilly, and fruit, named for its resemblance to Vacherin Mont d'Or cheese.
Vada (வடை) (food)
Vada (வடை) is a savoury Indian deep-fried snack of ground pulses, flour, or vegetables. Best known as medu vada, a ring-shaped urad dal fritter with sambar and chutney; in Mumbai it names the potato patty of vada pav.
Vada pav
Vada pav (वड़ा पाव), also called the Indian or Mumbai burger, is a Maharashtrian street food: a spiced deep-fried potato fritter (batata vada) in a soft pav roll with chutneys. Credited to Ashok Vaidya at Dadar station in the late 1960s and tied to Shiv Sena politics.
Valpolicella
Valpolicella is a DOC wine zone near Verona, Veneto, Italy, covering Valpolicella DOC, Ripasso, Amarone and Recioto wines from Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grapes, often dried by appassimento.
Vandana Shiva (वंदना शिवा)
Vandana Shiva (वंदना शिवा), Indian physicist-trained environmentalist, founder of Navdanya and RFSTE, Right Livelihood Award 1993; campaigns for seed sovereignty and against GMOs and seed patents; her claims draw both support and scientific criticism.
Varieties of biryani
Varieties of biryani: regional styles of the layered South Asian rice-and-meat dish, from Hyderabadi kachchi and Lucknowi pakki to Thalassery, Ambur, Sindhi, and Sri Lankan buriyani, differing in rice, spices, and dum technique.
Vark
Vark (varak, waraq, वरक़), edible silver leaf, is a 0.2–0.8 μm pure silver or gold foil decorating South Asian sweets; India's FSSAI requires 999/1000 fineness and bans animal-origin manufacture.
Vat 69
Vat 69 is a blended Scotch whisky created in 1882 by William Sanderson of Leith, named after the 69th of 100 trial casks, now owned by Diageo. Known for Shackleton's 1914 expedition and Band of Brothers' Captain Nixon; light 40% ABV blend of about 40 malts and grains.
Vegan cheese
Vegan cheese, also called dairy-free or plant-based cheese, mimics dairy cheese using coconut oil, starches, nuts, soy, and gums instead of casein; lower protein, EU naming bans, and a USD 2.43 bn 2021 market distinguish it.
Vegetarian cuisine
Vegetarian cuisine: meat-free cooking traditions and modern practice, spanning lacto-ovo, vegan, and regional Indian, Middle Eastern, and East Asian repertoires; defined by exclusions, pulses and tofu as proteins, B12 and iron planning, and 1847/1944 term origins.