EVALUATION

EVALUATION


The purpose of the assignment was to research food technology and its impact on the hospitality industry and the society. The time given to complete both Task A and B was adequate.

Task A of the assignment was individual. We were given six weeks to write an essay on the topic of our choice. My essay was on food additives. I chose to do this topic as food additives are added to 95% of all foods we consume and so we ought to have some understanding as to what they are. Some fascinating material that I learnt about food additives were that they have been used all throughout history, and have only quite recently been enhanced upon new technology. Additives are used to make food more convenient or more appealing through flavor, texture and colour; to increase their nutritional value or to make them safer for long-term storage.There is a long, extensive range of food additives, categorised by numbers that can be used for many different purposes.


We had two weeks to complete task B in which we had to work in pairs to plan, prepare, present and package a pasta meal suitable for sale to a targeted group. I worked with Samantha Pearce for this task and our target group was for vegetarians. In this unit I leant about the information that needs to be added to packaged food for the consumers use. This was a fun task overall. I enjoyed getting an insight into what it would be like to create your own food product and being allowed to use our imagination to make and create our own product.

We had 50 minutes for the practical work where we cooked the pasta and packaged it. In the PRAC task I learnt that you can be creative and use your common sense when cooking- you don’t have to follow the recipe word by word. When I making the pasta sauce, for example, I added some water to the sauce and then let it reduce down to create a ‘sauce’ consistency. The skills used in the practical task was the ability to read a recipe, use equipment, write and follow a time plan and work as a team.

The practical task was a success. Our pasta tasted extraordinary and looked appealing, alluring the consumer- using fresh products, with lots of flavors and colours. We served the vegetarian pasta meal in a plastic tub-aware container with a cardboard plastic sleeve over the top, displaying the company name, name of product, ingredients list, when and where it was made, how many people it served, instructions for micro-waving, how many serves it was and displayed a picture. I would make this three way pasta with garlic and peppers again as it tasted delicious and would be great cold for lunch or made fresh for dinner.