Meaning & use
fresh food
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Meaning
noununcountable
Food that has not been preserved, frozen, or processed and is usually sold soon after it is produced or picked.
Grammar: Uncountable: say 'fresh food', not 'a fresh food' or 'fresh foods' when talking about the category in general.
Patterns
- fresh food from something
- buy fresh food
- eat fresh food
The market sells fresh food every morning.
Doctors recommend eating more fresh food and less processed food.
We bought fresh food for the weekend.
Common combinations
- fresh food market
- The city has a large fresh food market near the station.
- fresh food section
- The fresh food section is at the back of the supermarket.
- buy fresh food
- I try to buy fresh food twice a week.
- fresh food diet
- A fresh food diet includes fruits, vegetables, and meat.
Synonyms and how they differ
- perishable food
- This is a more technical term for food that goes bad quickly; it is used in business and shipping contexts, not in everyday shopping.
- natural food
- This emphasizes that the food has no added chemicals, but it may still be packaged or processed; 'fresh food' focuses on being recently made or picked.
Opposites
Word family
- freshness noun
- The quality of being fresh.
- freshly adverb
- Recently; used before past participles, e.g. 'freshly baked bread'.
Commonly confused: fresh food or fresh?
fresh food vs fresh
As an adjective, 'fresh' can mean new, clean, or cool (fresh air, fresh start). 'Fresh food' is a specific phrase meaning food that is not preserved.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'fresh food' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Fresh food' is uncountable, so it is used without 'a' or a plural form and takes a singular verb. Options An and D are wrong because of 'a' and 'are'; option B uses 'foods', which is not standard in this general sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fresh food”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.