Food Technology

Programme Outline

The programme has three main sections:

• Designs Behind Bars (chocolate manufacture)
• Designer Meat
• The Big Chill (cook-chill products)

The first sequence takes us into the Cadbury’s chocolate factory, where we see chocolate being piped, poured, moulded and mixed with other ingredients to make a considerable quantity of a range of familiar products. The design of the Wispa bar is followed in detail, with reference to production line control and automation.

We don’t usually think of meat as being ‘designed’, but somehow meat producers need to be able to provide a range of products that are lean, fresh, hygienically prepared, last a reasonable time and are competitively priced: these qualities don’t just happen by chance, but by careful decision-making and production planning. We see meat in carcass form being hung, weighed and analysed for consistency of structure and colour (NB some pupils may find these shots upsetting). Testing procedures involve cooking and eating, and computer analysis of the data.

Finally, in the supermarket the consumer is able to choose the cut, amount of further preparation, the method of cooking, and the price that suits their lifestyle. Not everyone has the time or ability to prepare and cook a complicated dish, and a growing range of ‘cook-chill’ meals are being produced. In the final sequence we discover how the Somerfields supermarket chain develops a new vegetable lasagne. In their test kitchen they analyse rival products for taste, appearance and texture and from this develop their own specification. In terms of production, achieving the correct portion size, quality of ingredients and accurate temperature control are all essential.