use strict;

my( @fruit, @meat, @dairy );

my %food;

$food{'fruit'} = \@fruit;
$food{'meat'}  = \@meat;
$food{'dairy'} = \@dairy;

while (<>)
{
    chomp;
    my( $category, $item ) = split /\t/;
    $category = lc $category; # normalize
    next unless exists $food{$category}; # skip unknown
    push @{$food{$category}}, $item;
}

print "Fruits are: @fruit\n";