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29 Best Food Toys for Kids: Your Ultimate List

It seems like there’s nothing kids love more than “cooking” with food toys. Whether they like to copy you in the kitchen or run their own imaginary restaurant, you’ll find something perfect for them on this list of the best food toys for kids in 2023. As an adult who collects fake food, I can be pretty picky when it comes to quality so you can trust this list was carefully curated.

Price: $ – $
29 Listed Items

Which is better: plastic food toys vs wooden food toys?

Both have their pluses and minuses and it's really a matter of taste, budget, and the type of toy. Let's break it down.

Plastic food toys

Plastic has the benefit of being affordable, waterproof, and while it's as hard as wood it isn't generally as solid. You can also get amazingly realistic food toys made from plastic as it's easier to color and print on. 

The downside to plastic is that it isn't great for the environment and toys like play kitchens made from plastic are more likely to break than play kitchens constructed from wood.

Wooden food toys

Wooden toys just feel more high quality than plastic. There's a nostalgic quality to them. They also tend to be more durable than cheaper flimsy plastics. They're generally better for the environment, just be sure they're ethically sourced.

On the minus side, wooden toys tend to be more expensive, susceptible to moisture damage (let's be real, these are ending up in their mouths), and can be heavier so having one thrown at your head isn't a picnic.

Does it matter if they're realistic food toys?

It depends on who you ask up to a point. A three-year-old isn't going to care if their basket of fake fruit is to scale.

But at a certain point, realism does matter because if you've got set of play vegetables that are all the same color, you're missing out on the benefit of being able to learn colors along with vegetables. 

And then there's something simply satisfying about ultra-realistic food toys so I tried to include a good selection in this list.