Candidate workbook: Health and Food Technology: Contemporary Food Issues (National 5) Unit
Name: Anna Mitchelmore_______________________________________
You can record your work for the Unit Assessment in this candidate workbook.
There are four tasks in this workbook. This allows you to include evidence to meet all the Outcomes and the Assessment Standards.
Read the scenario below before beginning the tasks.
A food retailer wants start a new business which will appeal to environmentally aware consumers.
Carry out the four tasks which follow to help make sure the business is successful.
Task 1: Influences on consumers’ choice of foods
Complete the three grids which follow with the information about consumers’ choice of foods. This will help the retailer to decide which foods to sell.
You will need to include information about how consumers’ choice of foods can be affected by the each of the following:
three factors of your choice three contemporary food issues of your choice two technological developments of your choice
Explain three factors affecting consumers’ choice of foods
Factor
Explanation
Likes/Dislikes
If a food looks, smells and tastes good then the consumers are more likely to choose it.
Many of products are now available in individual portions which means that likes and dislikes within households can also be catered for, for example if someone in the household was a coeliac.
Lifestyle
Working parents and single parents may have less time to prepare meals when they come home, which may result in more ready meals being used.
A lack of education in food preparation skills may lead to more take-away or pre-prepared foods being bought.
Although there has been an increase in television cookery programmes which has promoted more home cooking.
Budget Available
More high fat or high sugar foods may be chosen where the budget is limited.
Healthier alternatives to everyday foods may be too expensive for families on a limited income (i.e. wholemeal bread, spreads low in saturates)
Special offers, e.g. ‘buy one get one free’, money-off vouchers in supermarkets can save money but these usually promote unhealthy foods.
Explain three contemporary food issues affecting consumers’ choice of foods
Food issue
Explanation
Factory Farming
Factory farming is used to describe a farm which acts like a factory as opposed to an ordinary farm where animals are bred naturally.
The aim of this type of farming is to produce the greatest amount as cheaply as possible.
Factory farms pack animals into spaces so tight that most can barely move. Many have no access to the outdoors, spending their lives on open warehouse floors, or housed in cages or pens.
Food Miles
Food miles are the distance that food travels from where it is grown to where it is bought. This can be a concern to some consumers because of the CO2 emissions from transport.
Throughput travel the food may have lost some of its nutritional content which may put the consumer off buying the food. Also the consumer may want to support local produce and supplies by buying locally grown foods to reduce food/air miles.
Seasonality
Seasonality is the time of year when the food is at its very best, according to flavour or when it is at it’s freshest.
Local seasonal foods tend to be cheaper and fresher as there is less transportation and packaging involved. This effects the consumers food choice as they may choose to purchase the cheaper products which are more in season as opposed to buying a product which is not in season and has to be sourced from places in which they are in season resulting in higher food miles and the product being more expensive.
Describe two technological developments affecting consumers’ choice of foods
Technological development
Description
Food Additives
Lots of people are now wanting to buy more ‘natural’ foods as there are more concerns rising about chemicals and unwanted
