Living Food Library 3.0
Architecture before scale. This page is the reviewable artefact for the system itself — the taxonomy, the ecosystem, the graph, the gates and the capacity plan. No public food pages were built in this phase; the inventory below is internal and renders nothing to visitors.
Master taxonomy
Seven libraries. One canonical home per item. A library owns its categories; a category owns its items; everything else links back.
Foods
/foodsWhole foods eaten as food, organised into nine primary categories.
- Vegetables60 records
- Fruits55 records
- Whole Grains20 records
- Legumes18 records
- Dairy14 records
- Animal Foods14 records
- Seafood16 records
- Fermented Foods14 records
- Drinks18 records
Herbs
/herbsLeaves, flowers and roots used for aroma, flavour and traditional preparation.
- Culinary Herbs15 records
- Infusion Herbs7 records
- Root & Bark Herbs3 records
Spices
/spicesDried aromatic seeds, barks, buds, stigmas and fruits used in small quantities.
- Seed Spices9 records
- Aromatic Spices9 records
- Blends4 records
Nuts
/nutsTree nuts and culinary nuts eaten as nuts.
- Tree Nuts11 records
- Culinary Nuts3 records
Seeds
/seedsEdible seeds eaten whole, sprouted, soaked or milled.
- Edible Seeds12 records
Healthy Oils & Fats
/oilsPressed and rendered culinary fats.
- Plant Oils10 records
- Animal Fats2 records
Traditional Persian Dishes
/dishesNamed traditional dishes that act as knowledge hubs connecting their ingredients.
- Khoresh & Stews5 records
- Ash & Soups4 records
- Polow & Rice5 records
- Salads & Sides4 records
- Kuku & Egg Dishes2 records
- Sweets & Preserves2 records
Canonical identifier rules
- Lowercase ASCII, words separated by single hyphens.
- Singular where a single unit is natural (tomato, not tomatoes); plural only where the food is never singular (lentils, oats).
- English common name, not the Persian transliteration — Persian names live in the record, not the identifier.
- No category prefix: the library and category already carry that meaning.
- Once published at Level 1 or above, the identifier is frozen; changes ship as a 301 redirect from the old path.
Food ecosystem architecture
Every existing item audited and assigned one canonical home. 40 audited paths resolve to 38 canonical records — duplicates collapse, legacy paths redirect.
| Current path | Canonical | Action | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
/foods/pomegranate | /foods/pomegranate | move | Botanical fruit eaten as fruit — canonical home is the Fruits category at /fruits/pomegranate; /foods path 301s. |
/fruits/pomegranate | /foods/pomegranate | keep | Canonical home. |
/foods/dates | /foods/date | merge | Plural legacy id merges into the singular canonical id `date`. |
/foods/barberry | /foods/barberry | merge | Existed in both the food catalog and the herb catalog. Canonical home is Fruits; the herb entry becomes a link. |
/herbs/barberry-herb | /foods/barberry | redirect | Duplicate of the fruit record. |
/foods/walnuts | /nuts/walnut | redirect | Nuts have a dedicated library; already 301s. |
/foods/almonds | /nuts/almond | redirect | Nuts library canonical. |
/foods/pistachios | /nuts/pistachio | redirect | Nuts library canonical. |
/nuts/sesame | /seeds/sesame-seed | move | Seeds separate from nuts in 3.0; /nuts path 301s to /seeds/sesame-seed. |
/nuts/chia | /seeds/chia-seed | move | Seed, not a nut. |
/nuts/flaxseed | /seeds/flaxseed | move | Seed, not a nut. |
/nuts/pumpkin-seed | /seeds/pumpkin-seed | move | Seed, not a nut. |
/nuts/sunflower-seed | /seeds/sunflower-seed | move | Seed, not a nut. |
/nuts/fava-bean | /foods/fava-bean | move | Pulse — canonical home is the Legumes category. |
/nuts/roasted-chickpea | /nuts/roasted-chickpea-nut | keep | Eaten and sold as a nut (nokhodchi); links back to the chickpea legume record. |
/foods/olive-oil | /oils/olive-oil | move | Oils & Fats is now a separate library. |
/foods/olive | /foods/olive | keep | The fruit stays in Foods/Fruits; the oil is a separate canonical record. |
/herbs/turmeric | /spices/turmeric | move | Dried rhizome used as a spice; Spices is now a separate library. |
/herbs/cinnamon | /spices/cinnamon | move | Bark spice. |
/herbs/cardamom | /spices/cardamom | move | Seed spice. |
/herbs/cumin | /spices/cumin | move | Seed spice. |
/herbs/coriander | /spices/coriander-seed | move | Seed spice; the fresh leaf is a separate herb record (`cilantro`). |
/herbs/sumac | /spices/sumac | move | Dried fruit spice. |
/herbs/golpar | /spices/golpar | move | Seed spice. |
/herbs/saffron | /spices/saffron | move | Stigma spice. Gold Standard guide moves with it; existing URL 301s. |
/herbs/ginger | /spices/ginger | move | Rhizome used as a spice. |
/herbs/black-seed | /spices/nigella | merge | `black-seed` and `nigella` are the same substance; single canonical id. |
/herbs/persian-basil | /herbs/basil | reclassify | Canonical id simplified; remains a culinary herb. |
/herbs/green-tea | /foods/green-tea | move | Consumed as a daily drink — canonical home is Foods/Drinks; the herb library links to it. |
/herbs/hibiscus | /herbs/hibiscus | keep | Taken as an infusion; stays an infusion herb. |
/foods/yogurt | /foods/yogurt | keep | Dairy primary, Fermented secondary. Appears in both browse views, one page. |
/foods/kashk | /foods/kashk | keep | Dairy primary, Fermented secondary. |
/foods/honey | /foods/honey | reclassify | Moves from an ungrouped food to Animal Foods. |
/foods/ash-reshteh | /dishes/ash-reshteh | move | A dish, not an ingredient. Becomes a recipe hub linking to its ingredients. |
/foods/saffron-rice | /dishes/chelo-saffron | move | A dish; canonical home is Traditional Persian Dishes. |
/foods/rosewater | /foods/rosewater-drink | reclassify | Distillate consumed as a drink/flavouring; Drinks category, links to the rose herb record. |
/foods/barley | /foods/barley | reclassify | Moves into the Whole Grains category. |
/foods/lentils | /foods/lentil | merge | Plural legacy id merges into the singular canonical id; Legumes category. |
/foods/beans | /foods/white-bean | reclassify | Generic `beans` splits into named legume records; the old path resolves to white beans. |
/foods/chickpeas | /foods/chickpea | merge | Singular canonical id; Legumes category. |
Knowledge graph
Two edge types, two levels of trust. Organizational edges are navigational and public immediately. Evidence edges are private until an editor approves them and the food has reached the level that authorises the claim.
Organizational — public
Related foods, related herbs, related recipes, traditional dishes, similar ingredients. 33 seeded edges, all live.
shirazi-salad→tomato(related-food)shirazi-salad→cucumber(related-food)shirazi-salad→onion(related-food)shirazi-salad→mint(related-herb)shirazi-salad→olive-oil(related-food)shirazi-salad→lime(related-food)mast-o-khiar→yogurt(related-food)mast-o-khiar→cucumber(related-food)
Evidence — gated
Nutrients, health goals, traditional classifications, modern evidence. Requires approval, named reviewer, ISO review date, citations for modern claims, and the minimum maturity level.
pomegranate→heart-healthwithheld · draftpomegranate→polyphenolswithheld · draftwalnut→brain-healthwithheld · draftwalnut→alpha-linolenic-acidwithheld · draftolive-oil→heart-healthwithheld · draftlentil→blood-sugarwithheld · draftyogurt→gut-healthwithheld · draftsaffron→modern-evidence-saffron-moodwithheld · draftsaffron→tpm-warm-drywithheld · draft
9 of 9 evidence edges are currently withheld. The gate fails closed.
Collection structure
Ten goal collections. A collection owns no membership list of its own — it is a projection of approved evidence edges, so nothing can be added to it without review.
Foods with reviewed evidence relationships to cardiovascular health.
Foods with reviewed evidence relationships to cognition and brain aging.
Foods with reviewed evidence relationships to digestion and the gut microbiome.
Foods with reviewed evidence relationships to sleep quality.
Foods with reviewed evidence relationships to inflammatory markers.
Foods with reviewed evidence relationships to glycaemic response.
Foods with reviewed evidence relationships to healthy aging.
Foods with reviewed evidence relationships to muscle maintenance.
Foods with reviewed evidence relationships to satiety and weight.
Foods with reviewed evidence relationships to immune function.
Canonical content model
What a record may contain at each rung of the existing editorial maturity model. A page never renders a field its level has not authorised.
| Level | Fields authorised | Public? |
|---|---|---|
| Level 0 — Inventory | id, name, scientific name, library, primary + secondary categories, relations, internal placeholders | No — internal only |
| Level 1 — Basic Reviewed Profile | + descriptive paragraphs, common names, family, named reviewer and date. No claims of any kind. | Yes — within its level |
| Level 2 — Traditional Context Reviewed | + traditional context with primary-source attribution, traditional classification edges. | Yes — within its level |
| Level 3 — Evidence Reviewed | + nutrients, health-goal edges, modern evidence with citations and evidence rating, safety notes. | Yes — within its level |
| Level 4 — Gold Standard Certified | + full guide, photography, Hakim grounding, certification review. | Yes — within its level |
Recipes as knowledge hubs
A dish is a connector. Its ingredient list is a set of graph edges into canonical pages, and it publishes at Level 1 only — ingredients, steps, serving, plain description, no claims.
Shirazi Salad
Shirazi salad is a finely diced salad of tomato, cucumber and onion, dressed with lime juice and olive oil and finished with dried or fresh mint. Everything is cut to roughly the same small size, so a spoonful carries all of it at once.
Mast-o-Khiar
Mast-o-khiar is strained yogurt stirred with diced cucumber, dried mint and, in many households, chopped walnuts and a few raisins. It is served cold as a side dish or eaten with bread as a light meal.
Adasi
Adasi is a soft lentil pottage cooked with onion, turmeric and a little tomato until the lentils break down. It is eaten at breakfast in Iran, with bread and sometimes a squeeze of lime.
Discovery facets
Eight browse facets. Seven structural, one evidence-gated.
Populated only from approved evidence relationships. Empty until review passes.
When the item is normally eaten.
Culinary tradition the preparation belongs to.
When the item is at its best or traditionally eaten.
How the item is made ready to eat.
Factual composition, not a recommendation.
Walks the organizational graph from an ingredient to every dish that uses it.
The canonical taxonomy itself.
Browsing by Mizaj or temperament is not part of this phase. Any future temperament-based discovery is a separate educational project, permitted only after the Mizaj educational foundation, governance model and assessment architecture are completed and approved.
Recommended cohorts
336 inventory foods are seeded. Below: the first 50 to review at Level 1, and the first 15 to carry to Gold Standard.
First 50 — Level 1 reviewed
First 15 — Gold Standard
Editorial capacity and expansion roadmap
Planning estimates. Capacity, not inventory size, is the limit on public pages.
| Level | Hours / record | Per month | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 0 — Inventory record | 0.1 | 300 | Identity, category, canonical id. Batched; no prose. |
| Level 1 — Basic reviewed profile | 1.5 | 26 | Three descriptive paragraphs, names, family, factual review pass. |
| Level 2 — Traditional context reviewed | 5 | 8 | Sourced traditional record with attribution to primary texts. |
| Level 3 — Evidence reviewed | 12 | 3 | Literature review, citation capture, evidence rating, safety pass. |
| Level 4 — Gold Standard certified | 30 | 1 | Full guide, photography, certification review, Hakim grounding. |
- One reviewing editor at ~40 productive hours per month.
- Levels are not worked in parallel on the same record: a food climbs one rung at a time.
- Photography sourcing and licensing is counted inside Level 4, not outside it.
- Adding a second reviewer roughly doubles Level 1–2 throughput but not Level 4, which is founder-reviewed.
- Capacity, not inventory size, is the limit on public pages. Inventory may grow freely; publication may not.
Gate: Integrity tests green; no evidence edge public.
Gate: Every profile passes the Level 1 claim validator.
Gate: Traditional claims carry primary-source attribution.
Gate: A collection renders only from approved, cited edges.
Gate: Quarterly re-review of all Level 3+ citations.
Gate: Editorial constitution unchanged; capacity added before scope.