Collector's Weekly has a great article up on the history of toy food--like this model of a butcher shop from 1840, complete with miniature meat and bloody sawdust on the floor. The article, citing The World of Toys, a 1969 book by Robert Culff, says that:
As dollhouses took off as popular toys for Victorian children toward the end of the 19th century, miniature shops started being sold as playthings, too.
Again, according to the article, citing Culff:
We're just glad the little butcher shops didn't include any "ghostly" scents of sausage-making. Check out the rest (with more pictures of non-butcher shop play sets) over at Collector's Weekly.
[Collector's Weekly via BoingBoing]