This paper touches on how political interests and power structures shape state-led crop conservation and food policy. As a crop that relates to culture and belonging, the chile crop is helpful to question how food security policy and crop conservation schemes integrate aspects beyond staple crops, calories, and/or electoral incentives. What do these schemes mean for the food and ingredients we love? Reflecting from this perspective can be useful to grasp, re-frame, and create more effective and inclusive food policies; ones that embody and valorise flavour, identities, and territories beyond statements on paper.