71983
I found an excellent Q&A addressing the [differences between 食料 and
食品](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/12167/32952). However, I don't know
how the word 食料品 relates to 食料 and 食料品. I guess that 食品 is just a short form
for 食料品, just as 警官 is a short form of 警察官. Is that right, or there is a
difference between 食料品 and 食品?

よろしくお願いします！
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2019-09-21T08:18:12.167
71979
2019-09-21T12:52:10.407
2019-09-21T11:11:41.427
32952
32952
question
word-choice nuances synonyms
Is 「食品」 a shorter synonym of「食料品」or there is a difference in meaning between both words?
食品, 食料品 and 食料 (食糧) all potentially have same referents, but the circumstances
where you see those words are significantly different. If I restate their
concepts in clearer phrases:

  * 食品: items for you to eat
  * 食料品: items for you to buy and eat
  * 食料: resources to sustain lives

**食品** is probably the word that covers broadest meaning to generally refer to
foodstuffs, as when you abstractly imagine or discuss "food", this is what you
mean. But in everyday situations, it mostly means final, or near-final
products that are ingestible with at the most a processing you can do at your
home's kitchen. Food used as an ingredient of cooked meal is called 食材, in
particular.

**食料品** is best translated as _grocery_. Foods on the store shelves. Though
it's a [hyponym](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponymy_and_hypernymy) of 食品,
we use this one more in this specific sense. Imaginably, we rarely say
食料品を食べる, because, you know, it makes me think of [such kind of
act](https://www.today.com/food/it-ok-eat-groceries-store-buying-
them-t147017).

**食料** or 食糧† is from a more survivalistic perspective. Food as material to
keep you alive or working, as if fuel for human. In the situation you say 食料,
categories of food are usually irrelevant; only the amount matters. When we
say 食品問題, it may mean food safety or food waste and such things, but 食料問題
almost solely refers to concerns of food supply capacity. For this reason, the
translation of "food" you see in games such as _Fallout_ or _Age of Empires_
is always 食料.

By the way, we have a native word 食べ物, which can cover all of their usages.

* * *

† It may need a little explanation. 食料 and 食糧 were originally different words,
that had separate entries in pre-WWII dictionaries with different kana
spellings, [しよくれう and しよくりやう](http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/863253/1137).
However, as the result of kanji restriction, 食糧 has been officially to be
respelled as 食料, and largely taken over the word form. What I describe in this
paragraph is what 食糧 used to mean. Nowadays, kanji restriction is more and
more loosened, so that the spelling 食糧 is also used at large, but 食料 still
remains an alternative spelling of 食糧, as its original usage has mostly
migrated to 食料品.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-21T11:09:47.757
71983
2019-09-21T12:52:10.407
2019-09-21T12:52:10.407
7810
7810
71979
answer