Key Stage 2 design and technology · Cooking and nutrition

KS2 food: grown, reared, caught and processed

Food reaches our plates in four main ways: it is grown, reared, caught or processed. In Key Stage 2 design and technology, children learn to name the journey of a wide range of ingredients, from field or farm to shop and kitchen, and to understand that “processed” covers everything from washing a carrot to baking a loaf. Knowing this helps them make informed choices when they cook and shop.

Grown, reared, caught, processed, explained

The curriculum asks children to know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed. Each word has a meaning. Crops are grown: wheat, potatoes, tomatoes and apples are grown on arable land, in orchards or in glasshouses. Animals are reared for meat, milk and eggs: cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry are raised on farms. Fish and shellfish are caught at sea, or in rivers and lakes, by fishing boats using nets, lines or, for crabs and lobsters, pots. Many foods then pass through a processing stage before we buy them.

Children are taught that growing needs the right conditions: soil, water, light and the right season, followed by harvesting by hand or by machine. Rearing involves feed, shelter and welfare, and teachers often compare how animals can be kept, for example free-range or indoors. Children also learn that some fish are farmed rather than caught wild, which is called aquaculture, and that fishing raises questions about not catching too many fish so that stocks can recover. Schools choose which examples to study, and visits, videos and school gardens are common.

Processing means changing a food from how it was harvested, and it is wide-ranging. Some processing is very light: washing, cutting, bagging or freezing vegetables. Some uses traditional methods that have been around for centuries: milling wheat into flour, churning cream into butter, turning milk into cheese or yoghurt, or pressing olives into oil. Other processing makes ready meals, biscuits or sweets with many added ingredients. People process food to make it safe (pasteurising milk), to make it last longer (freezing, tinning, drying), to change its taste or texture, or to make it more convenient.

A common message is that “processed” is not a synonym for “unhealthy”. Frozen peas, tinned beans, bread, cheese and wholemeal pasta are all processed, and all can be part of a healthy diet. What matters more is how much salt, sugar and fat has been added, which children can check on the nutrition label. Good teaching helps them look at the ingredients list and ask what has been done to the food, rather than sorting products into two piles.

This topic joins up with others in the same strand. Seasonality explains when foods are ready, healthy eating explains why we need a variety of them, and cooking is where children turn these ingredients into dishes. Understanding the journey from farm to fork also builds respect for the people who produce food, and for not wasting it.

Words your child will hear

Grown: Food that comes from plants, such as wheat, potatoes, apples and tomatoes.
Reared: Animals raised on a farm for meat, milk or eggs.
Caught: Fish and shellfish taken from the sea, rivers or lakes, usually by boat with nets or lines.
Processed: Food that has been changed in some way between harvest and plate.
Pasteurised: Heated for a short time to kill harmful germs, as is done with milk.
Arable: Farmland used for growing crops such as wheat, barley and potatoes.
Ingredient: One of the foods used to make a dish or product.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 2 says:

Pupils should be taught to understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed
As part of their work with food, pupils should be taught how to cook and apply the principles of nutrition and healthy eating.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: following a cheese and tomato sandwich

A cheese and tomato sandwich is made from bread, butter, cheese and tomato. For each ingredient, find out whether it is grown, reared, caught or processed, and describe its journey to the sandwich.

Start with the bread. Wheat is grown on an arable farm and harvested in late summer. The grain is milled into flour, which is processed. The flour is mixed with water, yeast and salt and baked in a bakery. So bread is grown and then processed twice, by milling and baking.
Now the cheese. Dairy cows are reared on a farm and milked. The milk is usually pasteurised to make it safe, then curdled and separated into curds and whey, and the curds are pressed and left to ripen. Cheese is reared, then processed.
The butter. It comes from the same milk. Cream is separated from the milk and churned until the fat clumps together, leaving a liquid behind. This is a short, traditional process, so butter is reared and processed.
The tomato. It is grown on a plant, often in a glasshouse or polytunnel in the UK or in a warmer country. It is picked, sorted and packed. It is grown and only lightly processed, since it has just been sorted and packed.
Check the whole sandwich. Nothing in this sandwich was caught. If we add tuna, we would have a caught ingredient, and we could ask whether it was wild-caught or farmed. Label each ingredient on a diagram of its journey.

Bread: grown (wheat), then processed by milling and baking. Cheese and butter: reared (dairy cows), then processed. Tomato: grown, with minimal processing. No ingredient was caught.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking all processed food is unhealthy

Adverts and headlines often use “processed” as a warning, so children treat it as a bad word.

What helps: Ask which foods in your kitchen have been processed. Flour, cheese, yoghurt, frozen peas and tinned beans all have. Then look at the label together: the question is what has been added, not whether it was processed.

Believing all fish come from the sea and are caught wild

The word “fish” brings to mind boats and nets, so farmed fish are forgotten.

What helps: Explain that many fish, such as salmon, are farmed in enclosures, which is called aquaculture. Look at fish packaging, which usually says whether it is wild-caught or farmed.

Mixing up “grown” and “reared”

Both are about food on farms, and children use “grow” loosely for animals, as in “the pigs are growing”.

What helps: Use a simple rule: plants are grown, animals are reared. Sort a list of foods together into grown, reared and caught, then add processed as a second label.

Thinking processing only happens in big factories

Pictures of production lines come to mind first, so children overlook the everyday processing done on farms and in kitchens.

What helps: Point out that making jam, baking bread, grating cheese and mashing potato are all processing too. The difference is the scale and what is added, not whether it counts.

How to help at home

Trace a meal back to its source. At dinner, pick three ingredients and ask whether each was grown, reared, caught or processed, and where. Packaging and labels often give the answer, including the country of origin, and a library book about farming or fishing can fill any gaps.
Sort the shopping. When you unpack the shopping, ask your child to sort items into grown, reared, caught and processed. Some items will belong in more than one group, such as bread (grown, then processed), which makes a good talking point.
Visit a market, farm shop or fishmonger. Seeing whole fish, vegetables with soil on them, or farm produce makes the idea real. Let your child ask the seller where something came from and how it was produced.
Process a food yourselves. With an adult, make something simple, like shaking double cream in a closed jar until butter forms, or mashing tinned chickpeas with a fork into a rough spread. It shows what processing really does.
Compare labels. Look at the ingredients on a loaf, a jar of pasta sauce and a tin of beans. Talk about which ingredients you recognise and which have been added to keep the product fresh or improve its taste.

Builds on

Key Stage 1: Healthy and varied diet
Key Stage 1: Where food comes from

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Nutrition and healthy eating
Key Stage 3: Cooking savoury dishes
Key Stage 3: Kitchen skills and techniques
Key Stage 3: Seasoning and adapting recipes
Key Stage 3: Source, season and ingredient properties