Gastric is the adjective meaning relating to the stomach — the muscular, J-shaped organ that receives food from the oesophagus and begins its chemical and mechanical digestion. Gastric juice, secreted by the stomach lining, combines hydrochloric acid and the enzyme pepsin to break down proteins and kill many ingested microbes; the muscular wall churns the contents into a semi-liquid chyme. The term appears throughout medicine and nutrition: gastric ulcers, gastric emptying, gastric bypass surgery, gastric feeding tubes. Understanding gastric physiology matters to food science because the stomach’s acid barrier and controlled emptying rate shape how foods are digested, how nutrients are released, and how food-borne pathogens fare after ingestion.