This resource has been developed by the Science Teachers’ Association of Ontario / L’association des professeurs de sciences de l’Ontario with funding and technical support from Maple Leaf Foods.
There are three parts to this resource:
Grade 1: Food Safety
Written by Tara Webb & Gordon Webb
This resource will look at the Science of how and why our food needs to be safe. It’s filled with fun ways of learning the do’s and don’ts of food.
Click here to access this resource.
Grade 5: Food Safety: A companion to the FightBAC! Program
Written by Stanley R. Taylor & Meaghan Mevarty
This resource has been written as a companion piece for teachers of Grade 5 using Fight BAC! For Food Safety created by the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education. Click on “Downloads” and find the ‘4-7 Learning Kit’. There are many other resources listed on this page. “The FightBAC!TM Campaign is a consumer awareness campaign designed to give consumers the knowledge they need to keep themselves and their families safe from foodborne illness.”
Click here to access this resource.
Grade 8: What’s that in my food? Using inquiry and design skills to solve a problem related to food safety
Written by Julie Kretchman & Shawn Gibson
Background Information:
Maple Leaf Foods (MLF), headquartered in Toronto, employs approximately 24 000 people across Canada. In 2008, Maple Leaf Foods (MLF) had sales of approximately $5.2 billion. Maple Leaf Consumer Foods produces fresh, ready-to-cook, and ready-to-eat packaged meats under brand names including Maple Leaf, Schneiders, Prime Naturally, Parma, and Shopsy’s. On August 7, 2008, Maple Leaf Foods learned that one of the products produced at its Bartor Road processing plant was being investigated by an Ontario local public health authority in connection with an outbreak of listeriosis. Over the ensuing weeks, rigorous testing was carried out, experts were consulted, recalls were issued, the plant was closed for a comprehensive examination and thorough cleaning, and both Maple Leaf Foods and the Canadian government carefully reviewed their procedures for ensuring the safety of food products. By the end of 2008, the Bartor Road facility was operating again, with enhanced testing protocols, and Maple Leaf Foods had appointed a new Chief Food Safety Officer and embarked on additional employee training and an extensive review of all manufacturing facilities. Click here for more details.
Inquiry and Design Process Skills:
This listeriosis outbreak and the steps that were undertaken to solve the problem present students with a dramatic real-life example of applying scientific inquiry and technological problem-solving skills to a problem related to science, technology, society, and the environment. But food safety is an issue everywhere, not just at processing plants. In a culminating task, students can apply what they have learned as they analyze a foodrelated process and design techniques or technology to improve the safety of the food. Alternatively, they can apply what they have learned to debate the safety of Canada’s food industry.
Big Ideas:
- Healthy cells contribute to healthy organisms
- Systems are interdependent