Allergen Action!
Learning about different food allergens and how to recognise them on food labels.
Resources
- Allergen fact sheet
- Teacher's notes on food allergies
- Food products and labels
- Eatwell Guide – poster
- Website for recipes and food
Activities
Warm up
Lesson on allergens:
- bring in food packaging and try to identify the allergens
- what they are and how are they identified in the ingredients
- introduce labelling and how foods are labelled for allergens.
Research on foods that contain allergens
Using the allergen fact sheet research foods/meals in supermarkets, recipe books and on menus that contain each of the 14 allergens – discuss.
Class discussion
- Pupils discuss their own experiences of allergies.
- As a class discuss the responsibility of others with regards to allergens – do’s and don’ts.
Practical
- Pupils cook an allergen free recipe.
Consolidation
- Pupils to investigate recipes they eat that may have ingredients identified as allergens, then propose alternative ingredients for the recipe that are not allergens.
- Pupils design a food label to highlight an allergen in a product.
Cross-curricular Links
Art – design a food label
Cross contamination – awareness of using items that have come into contact with food related allergens
First aid – what to do if someone has an allergic reaction
Assessment opportunities
SAY – identify all or most of the allergens
SAY – explain how allergens are highlighted on food labels
DO – design a food label with re-designed allergy information
Observations
Alternative recipes
Consider CfE Benchmarks, for example
- Evaluates information on food packaging and uses it to make informed choices when selecting food for given situations.
Differentiation
Support
Use pictures of different food ingredients and match to allergens.
Challenge
- Investigate other less common allergens in foods.
- Plan an allergen free menu of meals for a week.
- What action to take if someone takes a food related allergic reaction.
