With the prevalence of adulteration and doubts raised on the safety of food we consume, we always seem to talk only to the women of the household regarding the same. We somehow seem to ignore the growing battalion of the future – The kids!!
Today’s kids are proactive, open to new knowledge and are greatly aware of happenings in their surroundings
Lets empower our children to join this cause on food safety thereby ensuring we leave behind a world of aware individuals who know how to fight against adulteration and ensure only safe food is consumed
The following steps can be taken on a daily basis to explain to our kids the problems of consuming unsafe/adulterated food and measures to counteract the same:
1. Explain to them the impact of consuming unsafe/adulterated foods
2. Take them to the market when shopping for fruits, vegetables and other foods and explain how to seek out safe food – quality of vegetables, no shine on apples, etc
3. Explain how to read the food labels of packaged foods
4. Explain why we should avoid consuming fruit juices etc. from roadside stalls
5. Teach them how to detect adulteration in foods – conduct small easy experiments and show them – the steps are very easily available on the Internet
6. Explain the importance of consuming correctly packaged food and indicators of the same
Lets raise this Food Safety Army and safeguard their future 🙂
Do let me know your suggestions on other ways in which we can inculcate this habit in our children…
Motherhood & More...Motherhood is just one facet of being a woman among many... 
Great tip and that is being smart and responsible parents. Empowering kids facilitates their learnings and confidence. More than that, it promotes better decision making.
I am all for reading the ingredients and label. To make it fun for kids and many do like to have responsibilities, pick some ingredients you do not like, for example, MSG. Deliberately pick items with MSG and ask kids if it is ok to buy. Let them find the ingredient you do not like and they feel appreciated when you compliment them on their sharp eyes.
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Thats a great tip Robert!
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YES! I find really important that we can make our children understand food in general. If we understand food there are so many things that we can avoid!
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This is really very important. We have to make sure that our kids eat the right kind of food and has the proper amount of intake. Above all, we have to make sure that the food they eat is safe and will not make them sick. If they are well-educated about food, they can do away with food poisoning and other harms cause by food.
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I hope you’d give more tips on how to explain this to kids. From my experience babysitting nieces and nephews, most of the time they just care about eating their favorite food. Not whether the food is healthy or contains lots of preservatives and so on. I’m not a mother yet so I don’t have much credibility here, but I think with kids what’s equally if not more important is to get them used to eating healthy dishes, such as vegetables, cooked at home so they’ll grow up with appreciation of greens and hopefully a wide palate that goes beyond fast food chicken meals.
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Hi Kat..i think the starting is with following these rules ourselves and explaining to them about our food choices and rwasons for the same
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I think teaching your children these tools are a really important part about growing up. Food will always be an essential to every person so it is vital for them to be able to understand what we eat and why we eat it. I like the tips to talk to your kids about it. I have a hard time doing this so I needed this article.
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This, I may say, is responsible parenting. We should really guide our kids on reading food label, determining stale from fresh, and until when to consume food especially those drinks. In our household, my kids are pretty trained about these things. But I always visit my mom to check on her supplies in the pantry because she tend to forget to use or eat them. I would always throw expired canned goods and her ref has so many unconsumed and stale food.
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Wow, I had never thought about that! At what age do you think it’s appropriate to start this kind of conversation? I don’t have kids yet, but it’s interesting to keep this in mind for when I’m ready.
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Hi this starts as early as 2 yrs…and they emulate by seeing us..so we need to keep telling them why we choose certain foods etc
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It’s really good to educate children about food. When something is good to eat or best to eat. As well as the shine on apples. I don’t even know that!! Here everything is pre checked by the government and these things. So basically you expect every thing to be safe. But it’s not true!
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This is such a good idea, I will definitely be educating my daughter on the safest foods to eat. In the UK we don’t see a lot of MSG in foods and a lot of Chinese and Thai restaurants state their food is msg free. I think it’s regulated here but it’s always safer to check the labels. I know that here they coat some of our fruit in a wax to prevent them spoiling and as you say to make them shiny but it’s been causing a lot of people to be angry as no food should be tampered with before selling especially fruit in my opinion!
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Great to hear food safety guidelines in other countries
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I agree with your post. For responsible parenting we should teach our children food safety especially when they are on their own in school. We never know what food they eat and they should be aware of it.
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Reading thru your blog, I remember my own mother doing this to me, and my wife, educating and constantly reminding my kids about the same. Mom’s are the same regardless of race and generation.
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