What is food technology?

People who handle food should try to avoid the following dangerous practices:

• not cooking food for long enough;
• preparing food and then leaving it to stand for a long time before eating it;
• transferring bacteria from raw materials to cooked food;
• not storing food in a freezer;
• not thawing foods such as frozen chicken properly.

Develop the habit of studying the label on a food item properly before buying it. The label indicates the expiry date of the item for the information of the consumer. The expiry date is determined by scientists and food technologists. Later in the module you will be given an opportunity to design your own food product and then you will also have to make your own label.

It would seem that knowledge of the relationship between temperature and bacteria is important, especially with producing your own food products in view. We therefore recommend that you fill in the following table as precisely as possible:

Assignment 4:

Choose the temperature from the above table that best suits the description in the following table:

Assignment 5:

[lo 1.2]

Form a panel of "food technologists" for a discussion on the subject Food Safety.

Suggestions for setting up the panel:

• A panel usually comprises three to five members and has a leader who stimulates the responses of the rest of the panel by means of questions.
• Each member is given a subdivision of the subject, which he or she has to prepare thoroughly. The group leader knows which subdivision is allocated to each of the members and prepares the questions accordingly.
• The group leader introduces the panel to the rest of the class and begins to put the questions to the different members of the panel.
• After the questions have been dealt with, the class has an opportunity to put further questions to the panel.

Designing your own food product

• Steps to take during the planning and production of your food product.