Foods That Start With J

12 foods Food and drink Checked 9 Oct 2026

Here are 12 foods that start with J, each with a one-line description so you can tell what it is. The best-known ones come first, then the full list in A to Z order.

Jam and jelly lead a dozen J foods, and jelly appears again in jelly bean, jelly doughnut and jelly roll. That makes J surprisingly sweet, though jerky, a dried meat snack, offers a savory choice for lunch boxes.

Spicy and warm-climate foods round out the page. Jalapeno is a medium-hot chili pepper from Mexico, jambalaya is a Louisiana rice dish, jasmine rice comes from Thailand, and jackfruit is a very large tropical fruit. In Britain, a baked potato in its skin is called a jacket potato.

Foods starting with J: 12
Best known: jam, jelly
Longest name: jelly doughnut

Best-known foods that start with J

The ones most people will recognise, good for school lists, quizzes and games.

jam
jelly
jerky
johnny cake
jacket potato
jelly bean
jelly doughnut
jackfruit
jalapeno
jambalaya
jasmine rice
jelly roll

All foods that start with J

#	Name	What it is
1	jacket potato	a baked potato served with the jacket on
2	jackfruit	very large tropical fruit with sweet yellow flesh
3	jalapeno	medium-hot green chili pepper from Mexico
4	jam	preserve of crushed fruit
5	jambalaya	spicy Louisiana rice dish with meat and seafood
6	jasmine rice	fragrant long-grain rice from Thailand
7	jelly	an edible jelly (sweet or pungent) made with gelatin and used as a dessert or salad base or a coating for foods
8	jelly bean	sugar-glazed jellied candy
9	jelly doughnut	a raised doughnut filled with jelly or jam
10	jelly roll	thin sponge cake spread with jelly and rolled up
11	jerky	meat (especially beef) cut in strips and dried in the sun
12	johnny cake	cornbread usually cooked pancake-style on a griddle (chiefly New England)

Short foods with J

jam
jelly
jerky

Questions people ask

How many foods start with J?

This list has 12 foods starting with J, from well-known ones like jam, jelly, jerky to rarer kinds.

What foods start with J?

Well-known examples are jam, jelly, jerky, johnny cake, jacket potato, jelly bean, jelly doughnut, jackfruit.

Source: Princeton WordNet, a public dictionary database, reviewed by our editors to keep only clear, real members of the list. Meanings are short dictionary glosses.

See every letter on one page: foods A to Z