Food vessels are an Early Bronze Age, c. 2400–1500 BC (Needham 1996), pottery type.
It is not known what food vessels were used for and they only received their name as antiquarians decided they were not beakers (regarded as drinking-vessels) and so it provided a good contrast.
The earliest food vessels are of the bowl form and first appear in Ireland during the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age transition (~2400 BC).
They may have reached Ireland via Britain from the lowland areas around the Rhine or farther north.
Food vessels occur frequently with both inhumations and cremations in Britain and Ireland (Burgess 1980, 82).