Food Poisoning Fact Sheet and Scenarios Task

Food poisoning is any illness caused by eating food or drink that is contaminated with certain types of bacteria, viruses or toxins and the symptoms can vary from mild to severe.

This task provides students with background information on food poisoning, how to tell if they have had food poisoning as well as steps to keep themselves safe from it. Students are then required to pick one of the food poisoning bacteria listed in the task and research the specific causes, symptoms and treatment for that particular food poisoning pathogen. There is a scaffold provided and students can present their newfound knowledge in the form of a fact sheet.

To finish off the task, there are four every day type scenarios provided. Students read through each scenario to identify the food safety and hygiene rules that have been broken and explain what each person in the scenario should have done instead to protect themselves from getting poisoned by their food.

This is a great task to do with junior Food Technology/Family and Consumer Science students as it breaks down the complicated food poisoning pathogens phonetically and has the background information in an easy to read manner.