Food

Food are any number of items Kirby can eat to provide various effects. There are various different food items seen throughout the series. Food can often be found on the ground, in chests, by defeating enemies, or by utilizing the copy abilities Cook, Refrigerator, and Magic.

Food Effects

Most food items are used to heal Kirby. Most of these healthy snacks resemble real-world foods and restore a little bit of Kirby's health. The amount of health restored can vary depending on the game and type of food, i.e. meat restores three health bars in Kirby & The Amazing Mirror. The Maxim Tomato restores Kirby's entire health bar and resembles a tomato with an "M" on it. Regular tomatoes appear in Kirby Super Star as one of the basic food items.

There are special food items, that although do not heal Kirby, serve as power-ups:

The Invincibility Candy is a special kind of candy that grants Kirby temporary invincibility to plow through enemies with. It can't protect Kirby from falls, however.
The Jumbo Candy, like the Invincibility Candy, makes Kirby invincible, but enlarges him as well. It also gives him the ability to demolish anything in his path including metal blocks and enemies that usually cannot be defeated. (Kirby Mass Attack only)
Superspicy Curry grants Kirby the temporary ability to spit fireballs. (Kirby's Dream Land only)
An item called the Mint Leaf temporarily improves Kirby's ability to spit air puffs. A special version of the Mint Leaf is used to fight Kaboola. (Kirby's Dream Land and Kirby: Triple Deluxe's Kirby Fighters sub-game)

In some non-platformers, food serves another purpose:

Kirby's health is represented by tomatoes in Kirby's Dream Course. Tomatoes are gained by hitting small enemies.
Food speeds up Kirby's cart in the sub-game Cart Run.
In all other non-platformers, collecting food adds to the total score.

Cherries from *Kirby & The Amazing Mirror*

Food that Games are Centered Around

KSqSq Food Screenshot — Food as seen in *Kirby: Squeak Squad*

The whole game of Kirby: Squeak Squad centers around Kirby's strawberry shortcake, which is stolen by the Squeak Squad. Kirby sets out to get it back. The chest with his cake eventually finds its way into Meta Knight's hands. When Meta Knight is defeated, Daroach steals the chest and opens it thinking it still contains the shortcake. However, instead of the cake, Dark Nebula is released and takes possession of Daroach, who is turned into Dark Daroach. After beating him and Dark Nebula, the Squeak Squad gives back the shortcake to Kirby as an apology for the trouble they caused.

The sub-game Gourmet Race in Kirby Super Star and its remake, as well as its "sequel", Cart Run in Kirby: Canvas Curse, is all about Kirby racing against King Dedede to see who can collect (or more likely eat) more food in the shortest time.

Kirby Mass Attack is another game in which food plays an important role. If the Kirbys defeat an enemy or destroy a block, they will get fruit, which will increase the fruit meter. The more fruit obtained, the higher the meter will be, which will give the player a higher chance of gaining ten Kirbys.