Low Level Food Exposure Activities

Low level food exposure can be incidental or deliberate opportunities to expose children, young people, and adults to food and meal preparation. The focus is on learning about the food and working towards enjoying the experience. Most of these tasks involve the individual looking, smelling, and touching the food. There should be no pressure on the individual to taste or eat the food during low level food exposure.

Low level food exposure activities could include:

• Grocery shopping online and discussing observations.

• Browsing grocery catalogues, circling foods of interest, and discussing observations.

• Helping someone with grocery shopping. Unpacking groceries from store and placing them in a cupboard at home.

• Counting fresh fruit into a bag at store.

• Unpacking fresh foods into a bowl at home.

• Being present in the kitchen when food is prepared.

• Having a specific role or task in the meal such as setting the table, pouring water into cups.

• Choosing a fruit item based on smell such as pineapple or mango.

• Food preparation involving touching food such as grating salad items, cutting bread, shelling nuts.

• Involvement in food preparation with distance such as stirring mixture, cracking eggs, turning blender on.

• Visiting farms, orchards, food processing environments.

• Looking at recipes and videos/books about others preparing/cooking food.

• Growing own produce at home.

• Preparing foods for others. Handing foods to siblings/parents/carers/friends such as pizza toppings.

• Opening food items such as yoghurt, milk carton, or snacks for self or others