Despite the fundamental role played in society by food and eating, sociological
interest in the area is quite recent and is investigated through the sociology of food. The
threefold aims of this review include 1) giving an overview of the relation between food studies
and sociology; 2) giving an overview of the relation between food studies, culture and
globalization issues; and finally 3) summarizing the literature on food and globalization
focusing on research primarily on Japan and Asia. The first section (food and sociology) looks
at the path that slowly turned food into a proper object of sociological investigation. The second
section (food and globalization) looks at food as a particular display of culture capable of
shedding light on globalization. The third section (food going global) offers an overview of the
studies focusing on food, consumers, restaurants, and food producers respectively in the realm
of global processes. The review is structured on the cultural diamond elements proposed by
Griswold (2007). The three sections illuminate the interdisciplinary nature of food sociology
and globalization studies, the suitability of food as a topic for globalization issues, and the need
for more research on the production side of food going global.