What’s the big idea?

• The evaluation of Grab 5! found that tasting sessions are one of most popular and most memorable activities for children.
  
• The more children taste different kinds of fruit and vegetables, prepared in different kinds of ways, the more they get to like them.
  
• It is a challenge to get kids to try new foods.
  
• Many of the Grab 5! activities such as cooking, shopping and growing provide opportunities for tasting new foods.
  
• New foods introduced to the lunch or breaktime menu need to be supported by tasters.
  
• Tasting can also be an exciting and educational activity in itself.

There are many different ways of introducing tasting activities in school. Tasting activities get children to try a wide range of foods and encourage them to include them in their diet.

Tasting in the cafeteria. When you introduce new healthy menu items try giving away small tasters. Give them out to children in the queue or have a table set out on the way in where children can pick up a taste of today's special.

Tasting in the classroom. Tasting should be an integral part of cooking, shopping, or growing activities and can also be integrated into other topics.

Have a taste-a-thon. You could have a one-off big taste-a-thon where children get to taste a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, or have regular tasting sessions with different fruit and vegetables each week. Taste-a-thons can also be great occasions to involve parents - especially if they are held at the end of the school day when parents are at the school anyway collecting their children.

Most Grab 5! schools involved in the pilot project saw tasting sessions as an opportunity to provide a multi-learning experience, linking with other topics such as food hygiene and eating manners. The cost of fruit and vegetables for a tasting session for 30 pupils was around £8 (keep the portions small). A typical selection might include:

• 2 red apples e.g. braeburn
  
• 2 green apples e.g. granny smith
  
• 4 clementines
  
• 4 satsumas
  
• 32 red grapes
  
• 32 green grapes
  
• packets of raisins
  
• 4 bananas
  
• 4 kiwis
  
• punnet of strawberries
  
• punnet of cherry tomatoes
  
• carrot sticks
  
• half a cucumber

This apple slicer and corer is a very useful device, cutting apples into 8 slices with one simple movement.
To make the exercise successful for a class of around 30 pupils a teacher will require two adult helpers to help chop and distribute the fruit portions.

• Get all the pupils to wash their hands before you start - you can use this activity to ask them questions about food hygiene.
• Use fruit and vegetable samples and/or posters to get them to recognise various varieties and where they come from.
• Hand out individual bowls, explain that the samples will be placed in the bowls and no one must start before everyone has a portion and the teachers gives them permission - have a discussion on good manners.
• Cover the five key Grab 5! messages before starting:
  • Why is fruit and veg good for you?
    
  • How many portions should you try to eat each day?
    
  • What is a portion size?
    
  • What counts as a portion?
    
  • Fruit and vegetables are tasty
    
    These are outlined in more detail in the Grab 5! Curriculum Pack, 'What is the Grab 5! campaign?'
• After the pupils have tasted a variety of fruit or vegetables ask them questions about the colour, taste and texture.

You can choose to cover particular topics in a tasting session, for example, salad produce, citrus fruits, Mediterranean fruits, berries, tropical fruits, or grapes (red, green, currants, raisins, sultanas). Carrots lend themselves nicely to a session looking at different ways of eating fruit and vegetables, i.e. frozen, fresh, canned and juiced, raw and cooked, diced, sliced or whole.

Try experiments, for example, put a red and green grape in to their dishes, get them to close their eyes and try a grape. Can they guess which it is? Could they taste the difference? What was the difference? How many liked which type best?

• Cover the five key Grab 5! messages at the end of the session again and get them to return dishes in an orderly way.

Grab a smoothie The simplest recipe: Half fill the blender jug with fruit juice (apple works particularly well as does pineapple juice but any juice will do) Add 2 bananas and a tin of fruit, e.g. fruit cocktail, strawberries, peaches (use fruit in fruit juices rather than syrup for the healthier option) Whizz and drink! The fresh recipe: Fill the blender jug with fruit juice as above Add one banana Add the equivalent of one handful of any fresh soft fruit you like, e.g. raspberries, kiwis, pears, blueberries, strawberries, mango, papaya (peeled and chopped where necessary) The milky recipe: To either of the above try adding half a pint of milk and proportionately less fruit juice. Alternatively yoghurt and honey and/or ginger can be tasty additions.

As a variation to the classroom tasting session mentioned above, Henry Fawcett Primary School, gave each pupil a kebab stick and got them to fill it up with a selection of their choice of fruit and vegetables. When each had a full stick they sat in a circle and talked about their choices.

Another variation on the tasting theme is to use smoothies. Macaulay Primary School got pupils to bring in fruit juices and canned fruit from home, and to experiment to find the ideal 'smoothie'. Each class chose their smoothie and then, one day every week, on a rota, sold them to parents and other pupils at the end of the day.

Stockwell Primary School held a 'smoothie marathon' where every class, the staff and parents had an opportunity to taste a variety of smoothies.

Tasting should be Fun - small portions, attractive presentation, a break from the norm. Frequent - don't be put off by children saying 'no!' to new foods. The more often they are offered the more likely they are to be accepted. Positive - new foods should be presented as an exciting taste adventure rather than a compulsion to 'eat it all up'. Safe - see ‘Publications, Food Hygiene’ in ‘More information’ section. Try a taste of… Pears, lychees, mango, grapefruit, melon, cherries, blackberries, cucumber, spinach, avocado, cauliflower, sprouting seeds…. Raw, cooked,frozen, tinned, dried or juice

More Information Info bank 1: Get your hands on some fruit and veg, info bank 5: Get food into the curriculum, info bank 6: Stay safe, info bank 13: Buy local produce. Grab 5! Curriculum Pack, 'Tasting is the key!'