The Top 5 Most Expensive Foods In the World

We all love food. The question is: how much are you willing to pay for it? From a $5 meal at McDonald’s to a $100 meal at a nice restaurant to a $500 meal at a really really fancy restaurant, the prices of some foods can be pretty steep. Why? Mainly because of the ingredients that are used to make them.

Here are the most expensive foods on the market today.

The Top 5 Most Expensive Foods In the World
All the prices are in USD and reflect the cost of 1 pound, equivalent to 16 ounces or 0.45kg.

	1) Saffron is known for being more expensive than gold in its weight. The prices of saffron can range from $500 to about $5000 for 1 pound, depending on the quality, but the average is about $1000 for 1 pound. One reason why this red spice is so expensive is that it takes about 225,000 hand picked flowers to make just one pound of it. For more information on Saffron, click here
	2) Truffles are a type of mushroom and are often referred to as the “diamond of the kitchen.” They are often sought out by chefs for their enhancing properties to most foods. Black truffles can go from $130 to $380 for 1 pound, while white truffles go from $3000 to $5000 for 1 pound. A casino owner in Macau paid a record price of $300,000 for a truffle weighing 3.3 pounds in December 2007. One of the most interesting things about truffle is that they are extracted by using trained pigs or dogs to sniff out and find the truffles. Dogs are preferred now because pigs tend to eat them before the person holding the leash can collect the truffle!
	3) Caviar. For the best kind, Beluga Caviar or Ossetra Cavier, it can cost about $1600 to $2400 for 1 pound at a rate of about $100 USD to $150 USD for 1 ounce. Caviar is the salted roe or fish eggs from different types of Sturgeon fish, as well as whitefish and North Atlantic salmon. These are mainly found in the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Usually horn, gold, or mother of pearl spoons are used to eat caviar since regular silverware gives the fish a metallic taste. For more information on Caviar, click here
	4) Kobe Beef can go at a retail price for about $100-150 for 1 pound. Why so expensive? Kobe Beef is the beef that comes from Wagyu cattle, traditionally raised in the province of Tajima in Japan (today, the Hyogo Prefecture). The cattle are given a special diet including sake, beer, and other foods, and are also given daily massages that help relieve muscle tension resulting in a tender cut of meat. Kobe Beef is known worldwide for its beautiful flavour, tenderness, fatty and well marbled texture – that the meat melts in your mouth when eaten. It is used mainly in Japanese cuisine. In fact, basketball star Kobe Bryant‘s parents named him after Kobe Beef!
	5) Foie Gras. This French delicacy that dates back to 2500 BCE with ancient Egyptians can cost from $75 to $200 for 1 pound, depending on where you get it from (France, and Europe, North America, China). Foie Gras is French for “fat liver” and is the liver of a duck or goose that has been specially fattened by being fed with a special diet. The cheaper version of Foie Gras is pate, which is often found in grocery stores for $10 for one block. For more information on Foie Gras, click here