A Central Asian Food Dataset for Personalized Dietary Interventions

This is the first large-scale, open-access dataset of regional foods to preserve Central Asian food heritage. The modern Kazakh diet represents a combination of the traditional nomadic food culture, centered on meat and dairy products, and the current influence of dietary trends due to globalization and urbanization. Therefore, the final dataset includes 42 food categories and more than 16,000 images of national dishes that are specific to this region. The dataset can be used for food recognition and dietary assessment tasks. Beyond research, this dataset also supports the digitalization of the Central Asian cuisine, supporting the revival of the Silk Road cuisines and contributing to environmentally sustainable, socially equitable, and climate-resilient future dietary pathways in Inner Asia and the Caucasus.