In this activity, students develop their knowledge of food and product development to produce a snack bar for a specific target market. The purpose is to make an appealing snack bar while understanding that energy from food components should match energy needs (energy in and energy out).
The activity contains opportunities for literacy, numeracy and technology.
Older students can determine the nutritional values of their snack bars and use the online Health Star Rating Calculator to obtain an estimated Health Star Rating.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- discuss how different foods have different amounts of energy that is released into the body at different rates
- discuss some of the terminology used in food labelling
- consider the role of consumer research and sensory testing when making a new food
- design a label for their snack bar.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
- background information for teachers
- equipment list
- teacher instructions
- student instructions.
Related content
High-value nutrition products are a growing and important industry for New Zealand. Read about the process in Developing healthy food products – an introduction.
The Australian and New Zealand governments are conducting a review of the Health Star Rating system for food. This article looks at the systems drawbacks and ways to move forward.
Useful links
See the Health Star Ratings and food labelling section on the Ministry for Primary Industries’ website.
Find the nutritional value of foods using the NutritionValue website.
