6. The hidden ingredients

Home cooked food often contains salt, herbs or spices to add extra flavour and to make special recipes. Some of these ingredients may also be good for your health.

For example, it is said that garlic can help your body to fight infections and stay healthy. Processed foods that are made in factories, may also have added chemical ingredients (additives) to help it stay fresh for longer(preservatives), or to add flavour (flavour enhancers) and colour.

6a What flavourings are used to add flavour to the food cooked in your home? Can you describe the type of flavour that they give?

6b Some herbs and spices come from plants that may be growing in gardens or wild areas in your local area. Find out if anyone in your local community can help you to identify some of these plants. What part of the plant is used in food? Do local people think that these plants have special ways to help your body be healthier?

Design a ‘herbs and spices’ poster. You could collect and dry examples of the plants and glue them to your poster. Write down any extra information that you have found out about these plants. Could you grow any of these plants in pots on a window sill, in a school or local garden?

6c Carry out an investigation in your kitchen. Look at food labels and write a list of the extra ingredients that you have found. The glossary may help you to find out what some of these ingredients are.

Discuss your findings as a group.

• What do you think about having additives in your food?

• Do you think they make food taste better?

• Do they make food look better?

• Do they make food go bad less quickly?

Part 4 The ‘grow your own dinner’ challenge!

7a What grows where you live?

Find out about the crops and animal products that are grown in gardens and farms in your area at different times of the year.

Write down the time of the year, as months and seasons, when the crops are harvested. This is called the seasonal produce. You may find this out by looking around you as you travel to school or elsewhere in your local area. You could also interview local farmers and gardeners in your area or

look in gardening books. If you live in a town you could visit the local market stalls and ask about the seasonal produce. If you have already done the topic ‘Plants and Me’, you will already have this information and can use it again.

7B The ‘grow your own dinner’ challenge!

First split into twelve small groups and choose a month of the year for each group.

• The challenge is for each group to design a healthy balanced meal using the

crops and animal products that are available in your local area in this month.

• Each group writes out the recipes and adds information about the nutrition in their meal. You could also show how you would like the meals to be presented and how they could be used as part of a celebration.

A helpful hint! Some months may be more difficult than others and it may be necessary to use ingredients that have been stored from other months. Groups should try and use as many ingredients as possible from the harvest in their month.

• Working as a class, design a ‘healthy harvest calendar’ aiming to produce a meal for each month of the year.