Look at these two foods. One is a fresh apple. The other is a fruit-flavoured snack from a packet. Both say something about fruit. Which one do you think has been changed more from a real fruit, and what clue on the packet could help us decide?
Food scientists do not guess from the cartoon on the box. They read the list on the back. We will practise that skill.
A whole food is still close to how it grew, with little or nothing added — like a fresh apple or plain porridge oats.
An ultra-processed food has been changed a great deal, often with a long list of factory-made ingredients you would not keep at home — like a sugary cereal with colours and flavourings.
Many everyday lunchbox foods sit in the middle. They are a bit processed: changed in a useful way (baked, fermented or mixed) but still mostly kitchen ingredients, such as plain yoghurt or brown bread.
The ingredients list names what is inside, with the largest amounts first. How can that list help us judge how much a food has been changed?
Our question: which of two similar foods has been changed more from its natural state, and what does the ingredients list show?
Talk with your partner. For porridge oats versus a sugary cereal, and for an apple versus a fruit-flavoured snack, which do you predict will have the longer list and more words you cannot picture? Say why.
In your group, study the two food pairs: porridge oats and a sugary cereal, then an apple and a fruit-flavoured snack.
The apple is our whole-food reference. It has no packet list: treat it as one ingredient — apple. Fruit can still be naturally sweet; when we look for sugar on a list we mean sugar written as an added ingredient, not the sweetness inside the fruit. On the apple, added sugar and salt are not listed.
For each food, use the three checks on the board (or the matching boxes on your Investigation Journal page): how many ingredients; how many you recognise from a farm, garden or home kitchen; and where added sugar or salt sits on the list. Jot each check while the packs are still on your tray.
Your group's decision: which of the three checks will you weight most when you say which food was changed more? Be ready to give that reason with list evidence.
On your Investigation Journal page, record the foods you compared using the notes you just made. For each food, note how many ingredients you counted, how many you recognised, and where added sugar or salt sat on the list. Then write which food in each pair had been changed more, and the evidence that convinced you — including which check your group weighted most.
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