Reducing food waste
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can list ways to reduce food waste when cooking.
Key learning points
- A lot of food that could have been eaten is wasted for different reasons.
- In the UK, 60% of food waste is from our homes, on average around 8 meals a week are thrown away in each home.
- Food waste can be reduced by planning ahead, storing correctly, and cooking and eating everything.
- Food waste can be used for compost, such as fruit and vegetable peelings, egg shells and tea bags.
Keywords
Food waste - food that is intended to be eaten but is lost or wasted
Home - the place where people live
Food storage - keeping food safe to eat, for example in a cupboard, fridge or freezer
Compost - decayed food and vegetables used for growing plants
Common misconception
Food waste happens mostly outside the home.
Food waste happens mostly inside the home - around 60%.
Teacher tip
Although food waste is a global issue, focus on how pupils can reduce food waste. Look at the examples in the lesson and ask pupils how they could tackle food waste at home and school.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Is this food usually grown, reared or caught?
Q2.Where do these foods from come? Match their origin.
dairy cow
wheat plant
orange tree
potato plant
Q3.To help buy only what you need, you could ...
Q4.Match the foods to where they should be stored:
cupboard
fridge
freezer
Q5.What is this called?
Q6.Food waste is ...
Assessment exit quiz
5 Questions
Q1.Homes around the world waste over ...
Q2.Where does food waste happen the most?
Q3.True or false? Food waste can be reduced by buying loose fruit and vegetables.
Q4.Match the following food waste tips:
make other meals.
to help the food stay safe to eat for as long as possible.
help stop overbuying.
as people might leave it.
Q5.Food waste can be used for , such as fruit and vegetable peelings, egg shells and tea bags.
To help you plan your 4 cooking and nutrition lesson on: Reducing food waste, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 4 cooking and nutrition lesson on: Reducing food waste, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 cooking and nutrition lessons from the Seasonal food and ingredients unit, dive into the full primary cooking and nutrition curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.