New project shows Y10 students how to make their own Food Decisions

A new game app aims to improve understanding of healthy foods and empower use of nutrition label information on food packaging.

Dr Sally Moore, Lecturer in Nutritional Science, has offered a huge thank you to Year 10 Food students at Armthorpe Academy, Doncaster and Head of Technology Katie Pine, for their time and energy during a "What's a healthier food?" session. The session was  presented by Dr Moore and students from the School of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Leeds.

Dr Moore said, "We really enjoyed working with these Year 10 students to explore food products, nutrition labels and hear their views on a new game called "Food decisions," which is a joint project with FIT Talent Management. I had great support from two of our final year students, Sophie Greatbatch and Julia Lamb, who worked with the students and staff during the session.  
 
“Sophie and Julia enjoyed meeting staff and students and were really impressed by the feedback from pupils, which will now contribute to the research project findings to help improve the game and nutrition education,” Dr Moore added.  “We were also grateful for Harry Quartermaine from Armthorpe Academy IT for excellent computer support which really helped this project and thank you to Jane Dickinson, Lead Officer (Faculty of Environment) Educational Outreach Team for her support with the organisation of the day."
 
The "Food Decisions" game is freely available and was developed through a ESRC funded development and Knowledge Transfer (KT) project undertaken by Dr Moore at the School of Food Science and Nutrition, with several University collaborators, Blayn Parkinson, Dr Blagovesta Tacheva and Dr Arthur Lau and the game's developers at the Fit Food Company, based in Germany. 

The KT project, "Optimising the FIT Food online game app to promote the acquisition of skills and knowledge in nutrition and healthy food choice behaviours among users" aims to build relationships between the University, the European app development company Fit Talent and several public health collaborators.
 

Photo: Pictured at Armthorpe Academy are left to right, final year School of Food Science and Nutrition students Sophie Greatbatch and Julia Lamb; Dr Sally Moore and Miss Katie Pine, Head of Technology Armthorpe Academy.