This review covers 41 studies of moose food habits, including 13 from the intermountain west, 6 from Alaska, and 22 from Canada, Minnesota, Isle Royale, and Maine. Only nine of these studies include information on summer food habits, only four on year-long food habits and only two studies were longer than one year. Local variations in forage preferences were very important, and generalizations about preferred food items without confirming data for any given area appeared risky. A combination of methods for obtaining food habits data appears the most useful, since any given method in use has limitations. It was concluded that, although a generalized picture of moose forage preferences for the North American ranges can be obtained from the data on hand, there was not enough information to compare the annual, seasonal, or habitat-type forage use patterns between areas. Evaluation of forage preferences in a prerequisite to evaluating habitat conditions and trends, and investigations of nutritive values and forage digestibility.