Cooking Skills

Dr. Fiona Lavelle from the Institute for Global Food Security at Queens University, Belfast focused her research on the importance of cooking skills and cooking from scratch in the fight against food waste and helping to achieve food security.

Cooking and food skills are an important life skill are a useful indicator of eating behaviour. They are increasingly important as we strive to sustainably feed a growing population, tackle food waste and ensure food security at a time of crisis.

Worryingly, modern day lifestyles and trends towards convenience foods have resulted in a decline in cooking at home and reduced the learning opportunities for our younger generations. Thus, children are no longer learning basic food skills in the home environment! Moreover, an increased consumption of convenience products is associated with health issues such as overweight and obesity as they tend to be higher in fats, sugars and salt.

Researchers at Queen’s University, Belfast urge all consumers to get back into the kitchen to increase your confidence, enjoyment and control what you consume. In particular, we should bring children back into the kitchen with noted benefits including:

• Interest and enjoyment
• Increased confidence
• Motor co-ordination
• Spending time together
• Active time
• More ‘adventurous consumers’

Dr. Lavelle put together a short presentation on their key messages around cooking skills.

What we would like you to do

• Do you cook from scratch?
• Do you think children should get more involved in cooking meals at home?
• Would you have confidence using leftover food and ingredients to create new meals?