Ritual meals play a very important role in the traditions of folk culture, including family rituals: maternity-baptismal, wedding and funeral-memorial. The study was carried out on the basis of field materials collected by us in villages of the Republic of Moldova with compact residence of Old Believers, as well as in the cities of Chisinau and Edinet. The most representative in this regard are field materials that are associated with wedding and funeral rituals. In life cycle rites, which are rites of passage, ritual food is of great importance in the (re)distribution of the share of “(part of) the vital force and benefits from the general supply” (Baiburin) among the members of the community. In this case, the following come to the fore: porridge, loaf (bread and salt), kutia, etc., and salt is an apotropaic remedy (for example, groom’s parents greet the bride and groom after the wedding with bread and salt). It should be noted that, of course, the informants themselves were not always able to explain the semantics of certain elements of the food code, but sometimes they made interesting attempts to do this. For each of the meals that take place within the framework of life cycle rituals, several dishes are required (which bear the main semantic load), the rest are prepared at will. Regarding the obligatory ritual dishes, their local variants have been identified, among which the most stable ones can be identified. Not only the ritual dishes themselves have their own symbolism, but also some features of the position of cutlery, as well as table etiquette, including the order of seating at the table, and requirements for behavior while eating ritual food.