Eatable vs. Edible

I hope I won't be annoying another person by posting this entry... But as a teacher myself, I felt the need to clarify about these two words, EATABLE & EDIBLE. I was being commented that it was a mistake to use "eatable" when described the food I cooked.

My sentence was something this:
"I'm happy because at least the food was eatable."

And the eyes that looked and said something like this:
"Is that such a word as eatable? It's supposed to be edible."

And as I reflected upon what went by the past two days (which was enjoyable, spiritually upbuilding sort of activity), I had in mind these two words... And thus I checked the Concise Oxford Dictionary 10th Edition to confirm my own language usage. (I've been brought up using the word "eatable" to describe food that I can eat... Furthermore, my dad used to be an English teacher before he retired a few year back...)

Here are my findings:
eatable - adj. fit to be consumed as food, n. (eatables) items of food

edible - adj. fit to be eaten, n. (edibles) items of food

So, in my opinion as an English teacher, eatable is more suitable to be used in my sentence if were to compare the accuracy of words, because anything ranging from pills, drugs all the way to food, I can use the word edible. However, for the word eatable, it is specifically mentioning that the object is fit to be consumed as food.

Blogging about it is just another way to upgrade my English and letting new knowledge flows through my blog to my readers. I hope there is no hard feelings about it, and my apologies if there's any inconvenience caused.

Here are two visual examples, I used dog's items because it is more obvious, because both the dog will normally use their mouth and teeth...

EATABLES FOR DOGS - DOG FOOD

EDIBLES FOR DOGS - CHEWING

Till then... God Bless!