Look over the shelves at the majority of supermarkets, and you’ll doubt find yourself surrounded by rows and rows of food items designed for children. It could be chicken nuggets, or turkey twizzlers. Many products are no longer recognizable to the original ingredients they were made from – “junk foods” now line the shelves of supermarkets to draw young shoppers.
The impact that supermarkets have on UK children should not be overlooked. Super-retailers made just PS164 billion last year, and UK food sales are expected to increase to less than PS197 billion by 2021.
This makes the food and drink market an extremely lucrative industry. In the US, for instance, it’s worth more than US$41 billion (PS30 billion) in the year until now. Children tend to have an impact on their parent’s purchase purchases – and marketing tactics such as gifts for free and tie-ins to media could play a major role.
A recent survey conducted by the supermarket Asda found that many children aren’t aware of the origins of their food. The study, which questioned 1,000 children younger than eight years old, discovered that 41 percent did not know that eggs originate out of chickens. Similar surveys have revealed that the majority of youngsters do not know or are ignorant that milk is created through cows.
There have, obviously, been numerous campaigns to address this ignorance gap by educating people about the dangers and issues of feeding processed foods and preparing meals for children. This includes the media attention generated over the last decade through chef Jamie Oliver’s campaign to promote real school meals. Unsurprisingly, a lot of youngsters are unaware of the sources that their meals come from.
Food apathy
It’s an age when obesity in children is a huge problem in the UK, and many kids are becoming more obese as they progress through school. More than 60% of children are deemed “severely obese” in their final term of schooling than the first two years, according to the latest figures released by the government.
Due to a variety of reasons, youngsters are spending prolonged periods in their homes engaging in sedentary screen-based activities that are a significant element of the problem. This was brought to light recently when the TV personality Kirstie Allsopp was accused of smashing his son’s laptop] during the storm of media attention via Twitter.
Of course, the majority of schools provide healthy food along with the necessity of exercising in their educational education program. However, this doesn’t mean that students will follow in accordance with the guidelines they get from their teachers in the classroom.
The choices are limited.
Nutrition is usually an essential element in food options for adults; however, it’s the flavor text, texture (and enjoyment), and pleasure that will appeal to the average child. Therefore, while schools regularly make children consider nutrition, there is no curriculum, nor do the school lunches provide a broad experience of food.
It is a fact that many kids are able to go through their schooling without having an array of healthy and fresh foods yet are ignorant of the origin and significance of the food as they age. This is crucial since the research we’ve conducted suggests that the sense of eating is the primary driver behind children’s learning about the food we eat and our nutrition.
In our observations of children at the two UK education institutions, our research revealed that gardening clubs can provide unique and thrilling opportunities to tie production to consumption. These clubs have the potential to alter the way that schools approach the health-conscious eating curriculum because they allow children to feel, taste, and, above all, understand the origin and importance of fresh food.
