True or False Food Facts

Explore true or false facts about fruit, vegetables, dishes, drinks, cooking and spices. Read a statement, then open its answer and explanation

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Almost all bananas exported to developed countries are genetic clones
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True
Nearly all are the seedless Cavendish variety, which cannot reproduce sexually, so each plant is a copy of another
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Most wasabi paste outside Japan is really horseradish with green coloring
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True
Real wasabi is a different plant that is costly and hard to grow, so cheap paste uses horseradish and dye
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Most adults around the world keep the full ability to digest milk sugar
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False
About 65% of people have a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy, so lasting tolerance is the exception
Source: medlineplus.gov
Hawaiian pizza was first made at a restaurant in Hawaii in the 1960s
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False
Greek-born Sam Panopoulos is credited with the ham and pineapple pizza at his restaurant in Ontario, Canada
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy from China in the 13th century
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False
Dried pasta was already made in Sicily before Polo's travels, and many historians call the story a myth
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Saffron is a costly spice made from the dried petals of the crocus flower
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False
Saffron is the flower's 3 red stigmas, picked by hand; it takes about 150 to 170 flowers to make 1 gram
Source: uvm.edu
A cashew nut grows outside the cashew apple, hanging from its bottom end
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True
The nut is the tree's true fruit; the juicy cashew apple is only the swollen stalk it hangs from
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The sweet potato belongs to the same plant family as the ordinary potato
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False
Potatoes are nightshades like tomatoes; sweet potatoes are roots of a vine in the morning glory family
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The kiwifruit is a plant that originally grew wild in New Zealand
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False
Kiwifruit is native to China; it reached New Zealand in the early 1900s and was developed into a crop there
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Fully ripe oranges grown in the tropics can stay green
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True
In tropical climates the peel stays green on the tree even when the fruit is ripe; growers use ethylene gas to color it
Source: fao.org
Most birds avoid hot chili peppers because the capsaicin burns their mouths
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False
Birds lack the capsaicin sensitivity of mammals, so they eat chilies freely and spread the seeds
Source: sites.harvard.edu
Almost all vanilla is pollinated by hand, flower by flower
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True
Wild vanilla orchids are pollinated successfully only about 1% of the time, so growers do the job themselves
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Tonic water glows bright blue under ultraviolet light
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True
Its bitter ingredient quinine absorbs invisible UV light and gives it back as visible blue light
Source: scied.ucar.edu
Cheats in Aztec markets faked cacao beans, the local money, from dough or wax
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True
Cacao beans were currency; a 16th-century Aztec text describes fakes of amaranth dough, wax and avocado pits
Source: mexicolore.co.uk
Ketchup was first made as a thick red sauce from tomatoes
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False
The first known tomato ketchup recipe is from 1812; earlier ketchups used mushrooms, walnuts or fish brine
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Sushi began as slices of fresh raw fish served on top of rice
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False
It began as a way to preserve fish by fermenting it in rice, and the rice was thrown away
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Cacao flowers are pollinated by tiny midges, not by bees
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True
Biting midges of the genus Forcipomyia are the natural pollinators of the tree that gives us chocolate
Source: en.wikipedia.org
India had no chili peppers until Portuguese traders brought them from the Americas
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True
Chilies are native to the Americas; Portuguese traders carried them to Goa and other Asian ports in the 1500s
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Tiny bits of hay in the milk help make the holes in Swiss cheese
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True
Gas bubbles form around specks of hay in the milk; with closed milking machines less hay gets in, so holes are fading
Source: swissinfo.ch
Searing meat in a very hot pan quickly seals in its natural juices
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False
Searing builds flavor but seals nothing; meat cooked to the same inner temperature loses as much moisture or more when seared
Source: en.wikipedia.org

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