The kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s where delicious meals are made and happy memories are created. Part of this process includes ensuring the quality and freshness of meals to guarantee the good health of your family. This involves checking for food quality standards at the time of buying ingredients, as well as during storage.
This process is something that comes to every mum naturally as she cares about her family’s well-being.
But, what if we tell you that it’s easy to involve your child in these quality-checks that you regularly conduct?
Checking food quality standards: Why should you teach your kids about it?
Gone are the days when children were shooed out of the kitchen. Guiding your kids on how to make easy recipes, handle kitchen equipment safely, and check for food quality standards teaches them important, practical life-skills.
By doing this, you’re helping your child learn good values such as taking responsibility and helping others. Plus, getting them involved in age-appropriate household chores is certainly useful for a busy mum like you!
Especially important is teaching little ones how to understand if the food they consume is pure or not.
Here’s how to make checking for food quality standards interesting for kids:
Food quality standards can be checked in a fun way to make it interesting for your kid while teaching them some important skills.
You may start off by taking your child with you to the local market, or supermarket. Make your child feel important as ‘mummy’s little shopping helper’.
As you do a step-by-step quality-check, you can share with your child what and why you are doing while they observe and participate wherever they can.
Begin with these 5 common foods:
- Bread:
When buying bread, teach your kid how to check the expiry date and also if the packet has opened or has any cuts or holes anywhere. When using it at home, show your little one how to check the bread slices for greenish mould.
Teach them that if you are not going to use up the entire packet of bread, it must be stored in an airtight container or kept in the refrigerator.
- Vegetables:
When buying vegetables, the most important thing is to check for freshness. This can be done by observing for any holes, deformities or shrinkage. A bright coloured vegetable is also a good indicator of freshness.
You can ask your little one to select the veggies they think are fresh, and if you notice any not-so-fresh ones, tell your child why it should be discarded. When you get home, do show them how to wash the vegetables to clear any dirt or grime on them.
- Rice:
Rice may contain tiny impurities that are hard to spot, as well as traces of pesticides.
You can get rid of these by washing the rice well. Show your little one the impurities that may float to the top when you do this.
- Flour:
Flour, if not stored properly, can get infested with tiny little bugs known as weevils. While sifting the flour or leaving it to air can take them out, you may want to get rid of them in order to uphold strict food quality standards.
When at the supermarket, check the packet carefully for holes and when you get home, show your child how to store flour in an airtight container.
- Salt:
Firstly, when you are buying salt, ensure that it is pure, iodised and vacuum evaporated.
A fun way to check on the purity of salt is to mix a spoonful in a glass of water. Ask your little one to do this and observe the water after stirring. If the salt is pure, it will dissolve completely in water leaving the water clear. Impure salt will leave the water murky and there will be black particles floating.
Try this out with Tata Salt, and you will definitely see that the water is clear and transparent because Tata Salt is free of impurities. It is also iodised and vacuum evaporated to ensure the healthiest salt to each and every person.
So, there you have it: fun, easy ways to teach your little ones how to check on the purity and freshness of foods you buy an
