Educational Videos

New Australian Food Technology - Vegetables: from field to freezer to fork

“This unique Australian series takes students inside a range of modern food processing plants, to gain a hands-on insight into how a range of everyday food products are designed, manufactured and marketed.”

A program from the ‘New Australian Food Technology Series’ that also includes Our Dairy Sector, and Chicken: from Eggs to Takeaway.

Teacher’s Notes

Featuring: 

5 pages of Teacher’s Notes,
5 pages of photocopiable ‘Ready to Use’ activities for Australian and New
Zealand curricula needs
Video Length: 24 minutes
Produced by: Media Australia, exclusively for Learning Essentials
Distributor: Learning Essentials
Notes Writer: Geoff Russell BEd, BA (Media Australia)

Suitable for Middle to Senior Secondary students in subjects such as Food Technology (NSW), Food and technology (Victoria), Health, Materials & Technology, and Hospitality at TAFE.

Curriculum Links

Technology:

NSW HSC Food Technology (9.1 Sectors of the Australian Food Industry and 9.2 Food Manufacture)

Victoria’s VCE Food and Technology (Unit 3 Food Product Development & Unit 4 Food Production and Food Controls).

Industry Practice & Training:

Food Processing, Hospitality, Food Technology units at TAFE and similar courses run by RTOs nationwide (eg: through VET, VCAL, etc).

Program Overview:

This new 23 minute program traces the production of a range of selected vegetables: from their growth in Tasmanian market gardens, fields and hothouses – through to their presentation as packaged frozen meals for a variety of new Asian convenience dishes that are rapidly changing the way Australians prepare meals at home.

Specifically, the program uses interview grabs, presenter pieces to camera, narration, graphics, and lively industry based overlay to cover:

• the field cultivation of a selected range of vegies (eg: broccoli, peas, etc) in north-wester Tasmania
• the field harvesting, then packaging, storage and transport of this fresh produce at Simplot’s Devonport processing and freezing works
• vegetable industry issues (eg: disease and pest control, etc)
• marketing concerns for new frozen food products
• aspects of food testing and quality control in the frozen vegetable industry
• the preparation of frozen convenience vegetable foodstuffs: notably packet sauce mixtures
• the packaging, freezing and transport of frozen vegetable products
• the safe display, storage and sales of convenience vegetable meals at a supermarket (probably Safeway)
• and the preparation and cooking of these meals in a typical domestic situation.

By viewing this program, students will learn about modern frozen vegetable product marketing, growing, harvesting, processing, refrigeration, transport and safe handling.

They will also learn the role vegetables play in the Australian food industry, and their nutritional value in a balanced diet – thanks to expert input from Nutrition Australia.

Program Timeline

Opener - introduces the program’s content - including the amount of vegetables consumed by Australians each year.

From Fields to Factory - covers issues in the growth and harvesting (manual and harvesting) of fresh vegetables in north-western Tasmania; then follows a selected vegetable -- peas -- through the initial cleaning phase of their processing.

Blanching & Freezing - charts the processing of fresh peas through two crucial stages: blanching and freezing, and explains the nutritional science behind these stages.

Creating ‘Create-a-Meal’: looks at the rising popularity of frozen convenience vegetable meals, and discusses the reasons behind this trend in Australia; then visits Simplot’s Echuca (Victoria) plant to see the preparation of packet sauces for the Create-a-Meal range; concludes back at Devonport with the combination of frozen and packet sauce ingredients into a finished product.

Consumers & Frozen Meals - looks at how convenience frozen vegetable products are displayed, marketed, handled and consumed at a large supermarket; also examines the nutritional value of frozen vegetables, and safe food handling practices; ends with a verbal summary of the program’s key information.

Closing Credits; Program Ends.

MEDIA AUSTRALIA
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Email: pwiseman@mediaust.com.au