Healthy Tuck Shop Food
Bernadette Judeel, Taleesha Reddy & PawWah Tapili
Carmel College
Year 13 Food Technology, Full-year unit
Teacher: Sandy Goonan
The 2008 government guidelines on healthy food in schools, requiring lower salt, sugar and fat levels, provided a good opportunity for Taleesha, Bernadette and PawWah to consider the quality of food supplied by their school tuck shop. Working as a group, the girls first considered what changes could be made, then each worked on a separate issue.
The tuck shop is a central meeting place, and everyone has an opinion on the food! The three girls noted that healthy options are more expensive than pies and a filling meal will cost more but isn't always tasty. Their interviews found that student concerns were for health, cost, taste, and filling food. Although the girls had ideas on improvements, they had to bear in mind that the tuck shop is run on a contract and must make a profit.
Their client was the financial planning manager of the tuck shop committee, who was making major decisions on the tuck shop direction for the next few years. After discussing their ideas with their client, the girls each selected individual issues and researched different recipes and products, modifying recipes to suit their brief.
Recipes were tested on ten students, who submitted written survey responses.
Bernadette originally developed a leek and potato soup, adapting the recipe to make it healthier yet still tasty. She tested each variation, asking for stakeholder feedback on samples. At the end of the term she was satisfied with her recipe, but summer was approaching and she decided to change tack and work instead on a product more suitable for hot weather. Her client then asked for a healthier banana loaf. Bernadette considered the nutritional aspects of the loaf to identify what needed to change. She analysed the complex carbohydrates and investigated substituting wholemeal flour and raw sugar for white flour and sugar. She worked out how much fat was required to retain the flavour and how best to do this – substituting oil for butter, for example, changes the texture. Testing was time-consuming because only one change could be made at a time.
Taleesha wanted to revamp the pasta salad sold at the tuck shop. It contained only pasta, mayonnaise and carrot and Taleesha felt a nicer salad could be made for its $2.50 price tag.
Her first move was to take out the mayonnaise, due to its high fat content. She looked at different ways of flavouring the salad, eventually deciding to quick-fry the vegetables and tuna, and then experimented with quantities of ingredients. "There was a lot of trial-and-error"
At each testing stage, Taleesha used small groups of students with similar tastes in food. At each trial she gave a sample to her client but the main stakeholders were the students. Her final salad was healthy, appetising and economical, costing $1.30 to produce.
PawWah wanted to develop a Thai beef salad, and spent time trialling variations. However, testing revealed that many students didn't like the chilli and she decided this salad wasn't practical as a tuck shop item. She thought a chicken and avocado salad might be more popular and again tested various versions. This salad proved a big favourite during the product launch.
After evaluating their products, to ensure that each had reached their own brief requirements as well as those of the tuck shop and the new guidelines, the girls were ready for the product launch. This was a trial run, to see if their food would be accepted by the wider Carmel College community.
The girls took pre-orders for their launch and made pasta salad, chicken and avocado salad, and banana loaf with the help of two assistants. Food safety rules were vigilantly followed. The chicken was tested for temperature during and after cooking – food poisoning would not be a good advertisement for their wares! All went well – they sold out and reaction to their food was very positive.
The girls originally planned to submit recommendations to the 2008 tuck shop committee, but their initiative was so successful, the school established a new student tuck shop committee.
Teacher comment
These girls had the opportunity to start developing ideas about how the new government guidelines could be implemented, and what initiatives could be developed. Their product launch was a really good way to gauge the interest of 
their stakeholders in possible new ideas for the tuck shop menu in 2008. Their success also opens up the possibility of other Food Technology students furthering their work. Taleesha's folder was also used as documentation for a school proposal requesting funding to fit out a laboratory kitchen in the Technology room.
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