This textbook is intended for students of dietetics and applied home economics, for use in teacher training, higher hotel schools and for students of human nutrition in agricultural departments of universities. Students and others with a professional or personal interest who want to know more about foodstuffs and related products can also use it as a reference work. The first four chapters give a general introduction and deal with, in this order, production, distribution and legislation (Chapter 1), potential forms of quality deterioration and spoilage (Chapter 2), methods of preservation (Chapter 3), and the presence of additives and contaminants in foodstuffs (Chapter 4). The main part of the book (see the scheme on page 11) describes the various product groups and, group by group, deals with technology, composition, potential use and storage advice. Where appropriate, a description of typical and special products follows, including those that are not essential dietary items. We are indebted to the Board of Directors of the Hogeschool Nijmegen Akademie Dietetiek. We were allowed to use as the basis for this book a thesis written previously. We also thank our colleagues, especially those from the subject department of Food, and students from the Akademie Dietetiek for remarks and marginal notes, which they made in the aforementioned thesis.