retort food

noun

Foodstuff that has undergone retort sterilization.

Meanings

nounretort food (countable and uncountable, plural retort foods)

plural retort foods

  1. JapanSouth KoreacountableespeciallyuncountableFoodstuff that has undergone retort sterilization.

    Korean college students mainly consumed frozen food, retort food, and kimbap in convenience stores.

    1998 July 30, Soo-Jae Moon, Hye-June Yoon, Jung-Hyun Kim, Yang-Ja Lee, “A Study on the Perception and Consumption Pattern of Convenience Foods by Korean College Students”, in Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture 한국식생활문화학회지
    3 more examples

    Shiseido Co., the parent firm, is studying the feasibility of advancing into the "retort food" field for raising the profitability of Shiseido Parlor.

    1977, The Oriental Economist

    When retort food is heated in the retort, sterilization racks are used to guarantee equal exposure of each container to the heating medium.

    1990, Takashi Kadoya, editor, Food Packaging, Academic Press

    There is a strong demand for retort food from consumers as emergency food because of their long shelf life and ease of consumption;

    2014, Ruri Ito, Mika Fukuoka, Naoko Hamada-Sato, “Innovative food processing technology using ohmic heating and aseptic packaging for meat”, in Meat Science, →DOI

Origin

  1. Korean레토르트 식품(食品)
  2. Japaneseレトルト食品
  3. Englishretort food

Calque of Japanese レトルト食品 (retoruto shokuhin), or calque of Korean 레토르트 식품(食品) (retoreuteu sikpum).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Japanese レトルト食品
  • レトルト食品 (retoruto shokuhin)foodstuff that has undergone retort sterilization
Korean 레토르트 식품
  • 레토르트 식품 (retoreuteu sikpum)foodstuff that has undergone retort sterilization
Cite this entry
APA

retort food. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/retort%20food

MLA

“retort food.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/retort%20food. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “retort food,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/retort%20food.

Source: retort food on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.