"[2] The technique of gavage dates as far back as 2500 BC, when the ancient Egyptians began confining anatid birds to be forcedly fed to be fattened as a food source.

[4] Gavage-based foie gras production is controversial, due mainly to animal welfare concerns about force-feeding, intensive housing and husbandry, and enlarging the liver to 10 times its usual volume.

[5][6] In the necropolis of Saqqara, in the tomb of Mereruka, an important royal official, there is a bas relief scene wherein workers grasp geese around the necks to push food down their throats.

[16] Pliny the Elder (1st century AD) credits his contemporary, Roman gastronome Marcus Gavius Apicius, with feeding dried figs to geese to enlarge their livers: "Apicius made the discovery that we may employ the same artificial method of increasing the size of the liver of the sow, as of that of the goose; it consists in cramming them with dried figs, and when they are fat enough, they are drenched with wine mixed with honey and immediately killed.

Some claim that Gallic farmers preserved the foie gras tradition until the rest of Europe rediscovered it centuries later, but the medieval French peasant's food animals were mainly pigs and sheep.

In 1570, Bartolomeo Scappi, chef de cuisine to Pope Pius V, published his cookbook Opera, wherein he writes that "the liver of [a] domestic goose raised by the Jews is of extreme size and weighs [between] two and three pounds".

[4] Approximately 30,000 people work in the French foie gras industry, with 90% of them residing in the Périgord (Dordogne), Aquitaine in the southwest, and Alsace in the east.

[36] The European Union recognizes the foie gras produced according to traditional farming methods (label rouge) in southwestern France with a protected geographical indication.

[citation needed] Hungary is the world's second-largest foie gras (libamáj) producer and the largest exporter (although Bulgaria sometimes had a higher production in recent years, see table above).

This led to Algeria, China, Egypt, Japan, Morocco, South Korea, Thailand and Tunisia banning French poultry exports, including foie gras, and France to initiate increased bio-security protocols which cost an estimated 220 million euros.

Whole foie gras is readily available from gourmet retailers in Canada, the United States, Hungary, Argentina and regions with a sizeable market for the product.

[54][55][better source needed] In 2016, Hungary was producing 80% of the world's goose foie gras; however, production rates are likely to drop in 2017 due to outbreaks of bird flu.

[60] The basis of foie gras production is the ability that some waterfowl have to expand their esophagus and to gain weight, particularly in the liver,[citation needed] in preparation for migration.

During feeding, efforts are made to avoid damaging the bird's esophagus, which could cause injury or death, although researchers have found evidence of inflammation of the walls of the proventriculus after the first session of force-feeding.

[78] The resulting products do not conform to the French legal standard for "foie gras", but can be labeled "fatty goose liver" inside France.

[80] The current method, developed in Extremadura, Spain, involves timing the slaughter to coincide with the winter migration, when the livers naturally fatten.

[82][83] Because gavage fattens goose livers to substantially larger than their natural size, de Sousa's technique is less efficient at producing a fixed mass of foie gras, and composes a small fraction of the market.

[85] Subsequently, researchers at the German Institute of Home Economics (DIL) [de] and the company GMT developed a process to apply additional fat to duck liver meat at high pressure.

[87] Alternatively, human microbiome studies on obesity led French researchers at Aviwell develop a probiotic preparation that produces fatty livers in geese over six months without gavage.

Traditional low-heat cooking methods result in terrines, pâtés, parfaits, foams, and mousses of foie gras, often flavored with truffle, mushrooms, or brandy such as cognac or armagnac.

For added flavor (from the Maillard reaction), the liver may be seared briefly over a fire of grape vine clippings (sarments) before slow-cooking in a bain-marie; afterwards, it is pressed and served cold, in slices.

Optimal structural integrity for searing requires the foie gras to be cut to a thickness between 15 and 25 mm (½ – 1 inch), resulting in a rare, uncooked center.

Practitioners of molecular gastronomy such as Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck restaurant first flash-freeze foie gras in liquid nitrogen as part of the preparation process.

[100] In France, it is mainly consumed on special occasions, such as Christmas or New Year's Eve réveillon dinners, though the recent increased availability of foie gras has made it a less exceptional dish.

[102] Gavage-based foie gras production is controversial due to the animal welfare consequences of the force-feeding procedure, intensive housing and husbandry, an enlarged liver and the potential for being detrimental to human health.

[57][110][111][112] After measuring a range of physiological parameters in male Mulard ducks, it was concluded in one study that the acute stress caused by force-feeding is similar at the beginning and end of the commercial production of foie gras.

[107] According to a 2023 European food safety authority (EFSA) report, even the collective cages and pens currently in use in Europe do not offer enough space to the birds for them to express their natural behaviour.

[107] The relatively new Mulard breed used in foie gras production seems more prone to developing lesions in the area of the sternum when kept in small cages and to bone breakage during transport and slaughter.

[123] In November 2013, the Daily Mirror published a report based on the video they obtained depicting cruelty towards ducks in a farm owned by French firm Ernest Soulard, which is a supplier to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's restaurants.

[133][134] In November 2022, the Buckingham Palace household wrote to the PETA campaign group that foie gras was not bought or served in royal residences.