Be a food detective

You’ll need

A4 paper
Coloured pens or pencils
Device to show photos, videos, or slides
Items of food or food packaging
Reusable shopping bag

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Planning this activity

Collect a range of different food items and clean, dry food packaging. Include some items that come from plants and some that come from animals. If you want to take it a step further, you could include some that are made of both plant and animal ingredients, such as pizza. We’ve included some ideas below.
To avoid any food waste, choose food that you’ll still be able to use after the activity or use clean, dry packaging.
Make sure all the packaging you’re using is clean and safe for people to handle. Don’t use any packaging from raw meat or fish or any opened cans.
You’ll need enough items for everyone to be able to have their own. If you’ve got a larger group, you might want to split into smaller groups so you can give each group a bag of items to explore.
You could write out some labels saying ‘from plants’ and ‘from animals’ to help people sort the items into two piles. You could add some pictures to the labels to help everyone’s understanding.

Where does food come from?

Ask everyone about where their food comes from. People might talk about supermarkets or food banks – but where does the food come from before it gets there? Some people might grow food in a garden, on a balcony, or on an allotment (a piece of land away from your home). Some people might even keep chickens for their eggs.
Explain that some food (like vegetables and pasta) comes from plants, while other foods (like milk and chicken) come from animals. The food people eat is likely to have come from different places all around the world. You could chat about how lots of food comes from farms. Some of it goes to factories, where they mix things together to make different foods.
Show everyone the bag of food items.You might want to split into smaller groups with a bag of food for each group.
Everyone should take it in turns to pick an item from the bag. They should try to identify their food item. Do they think it comes from a plant or an animal, or maybe both? Some items might be harder than others. Encourage everyone to help each other and share ideas, and make sure the quieter voices are heard too.
Let people keep taking it in turns to choose a food item, identify it, and think about where it comes from. Adults volunteers or young leaders can help everyone identify all the foods and help them understand which plant or animal each item comes from.
If something’s from a plant, you could talk about whether it grows underground like a potato or above the ground. If it grows above the ground, does it grow in a tree (like bananas) or on a smaller plant or bush (like strawberries)? If there’s time, you could look at pictures of the plants.

My favourite food

When everyone’s ready, they should draw their favourite food or favourite lunch. They could also draw something they like to eat or something they’ve eaten today.
When everyone’s finished, anyone who wants to share what they’ve done should take it in turns to show everyone their drawings and tell them about their favourite food. You could ask what it’s made from, and where they think each ingredient comes from.
For example, if someone’s chosen pizza, think about where the cheese comes from, where the tomatoes for the topping come from, and what the base is made from.

Squirrel story about food

Pritti lived in a block of flats with her mummy and her mama. They didn’t have a garden. One Saturday morning, Pritti’s mama had some very exciting news.

‘Our new neighbour is called Rosie and she has an allotment,’ Mama explained. ‘Allotments are like gardens that people can rent. They use the space to grow fruit and vegetables, and Rosie said we could help her harvest some.’

When they arrived at the allotment, Rosie was waiting for them. She led them past lots of people digging holes and watering plants and picking weeds.

‘Here’s everything I’ve been growing,’ Rosie said. ‘I think we can harvest carrots and cauliflowers and cucumbers today.’

Rosie pointed to a row of plants with tall, green leaves that looked a bit like feathers.

‘These are the carrots,’ she explained.

‘Where?’ asked Pritti. She wasn’t a gardening expert, but even she knew that carrots were orange.

Pritti’s mummy showed her how to push the tickly green leaves to the side. It looked like someone had poked a carrot into the mud! Pritti learned to carefully pull the long orange carrots out of the ground. They were all different sizes, and some of them were funny shapes too.

‘This one looks like a pair of legs!’ Pritti giggled.

Meanwhile, Mama was helping Rosie harvest the cauliflowers. It was a bit easier to spot the wrinkly white cauliflowers poking out among the big green leaves. Pritti watched as Rosie cut the cauliflower off the plant.

Soon they moved to the cucumbers. The cucumber plant was the tallest plant of the three. Bendy cucumbers grew among the leaves and yellow flowers. Pritti’s job was to find the cucumbers; then she stepped back while Rosie used one of her tools to snip them off the plant.

‘Some plants grow on bushes, too,’ Rosie explained. ‘Let’s go and see if the blackberries are ripe.’

Rosie led Pritti, Mama and Mummy to the back of the allotments where there were big bushes all along the fence. Rosie showed her how to carefully pull the plumpest, juiciest blackberries off the plant – and she soon learned to be careful of the prickly thorns.

‘When did you plant the blackberries?’ Pritti asked.

‘We don’t know where they came from,’ explained Rosie. ‘These plants are wild – they probably planted themselves! Everyone at the allotments shares the blackberries, and we leave some behind for the wildlife too.’

They walked back to their flat with their arms full of berries and vegetables. When they got home, they washed the food and Pritti sat down to have a snack.

‘I wonder what we’ll harvest next weekend?’ she said. ‘Maybe we’ll pick some eggs or dig up some milk.’

Mummy and Mama laughed. Do you know why they were laughing? Where do eggs and milk really come from?

By Annabel Rose

Reflection

This activity encouraged everyone to explore different foods and think about where they come from. People also practised taking turns and sharing their ideas.

Exploring the Allotment

How many different foods did Pritti find?
Why is it good to see where food comes from?

Plant or animal?

Had people tried the food in this activity before? Did they like it? What does it taste like?
Did people enjoy finding out about where different foods come from? Was anyone surprised when they found out where the foods come from?

My favourite food

Did anyone find out anything new about their favourite food?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Food: Remember to check for allergies, eating problems, fasting or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you’ve suitable areas for storing and preparing food and avoid cross contamination of different foods. Take a look at our guidance on food safety and hygiene.
Rubbish and recycling: All items should be clean and suitable for this activity.