The text of On the Properties of Foodstuffs upon which this translation is based is that edited by Georg Helmreich in 1923 for the Corpus Medicorum Graecorum series. As has now become conventional, the pagination of the much older edition of Karl (sometimes Carl) Gottlob Kühn is given in the margin. This has advantages both for greater precision in internal cross-referencing where this is needed, and for tying the commentary to the text. Items that receive mention in the commentary are identified by asterisks in the text.

The titles of all ancient sources are given in English. These, with the more traditional Latin titles, appear in a separate list of ancient sources. Throughout the translation and commentary, all Greek words and phrases are given in conventional transliteration. I have kept transliteration of terminology to a minimum but, given Galen's frequent discussion of alternative spellings (or names), some transliteration is necessary to make sense of his statements, as it is for the very few terms that resist satisfactory translation. In a few footnotes the Greek font is used where this seems likely to be helpful. All translated quotations from ancient sources are attributed to their translators, and where there is no such attribution the translation is my own.

Throughout the translation I have made use of both round and square brackets. The former enclose what I take to be in the nature of parenthetical remarks by Galen.