MAKING YOUNG CONSUMERS FOOD AWARE
This week trading standards and environmental health visited South Ascot Village School as part of national food awareness and food safety week. Recent studies have highlighted that children need to become more food aware with growing concern over child obesity and children not eating enough fruit and vegetables.
An 'identify the fruit or vegetable competition' developed by trading standards proved a big hit with the classes, where children looked at some fruits or vegetables and tried to correctly identify it, some of these were quite unusual such as dragon fruit. Another big hit was a 'feel the fruit in a box game', where common and not so common fruits, were identified by their feel alone. A great educational game showed the traffic light labelling system regarding fats, sugars and salts which enabled the children to differentiate the healthier options from those high in fat, sugar and salt such as pepperoni pizza.
Prizes and leaflets re-confirmed the messages and gave the event a buzz of excitement.
Food Safety Officer, Wendy Foster took quizzes and a 'magic' UV light box with some 'glowing' potion into the classroom to show the children the effect of not washing their hands properly. The children were keen to have a go with the hand wash test and were rewarded with stickers. The activity was carried on with parents at the afternooon fair and the message extended to cover other food safety issues such as bugs and barbeques. Everyone went away understanding the importance of washing hands before handling any food.
Trading Standards are part of the schools nutrition network, and worked alongside Public Health Dieticians, Oral Health Promotion Advisors, Advisors for Healthy Schools, School Nurses, Nursery Nurses and Nutritionists to deliver the food awareness package.
Davina Walkin, food awareness organiser at Trading Standards said "Children really enjoyed it and are now certainly more aware about reading labels and making healthy choices. We hope they will go home and share this message with their families too."
Further useful links:
For further information, you can contact Trading Standards on 01628 683802 and Consumer Direct on 08454 040506.
Date of Release: 14-6-07
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