Food Technology
Home > Food Technology > Contemporary food issues - Marketplace > Home Meal Replacements/Solutions (HMR)
Food technology
Marketplace
Home Meal Replacements/Solutions (HMR)
If you are studying the option strand, Contemporary food issues - Marketplace, you will learn about trends in the marketplace. With both parents in an increasing number of households now working, there is less time for preparing a family meal and eating it together. More families are relying on takeaway food and eating it in front of the television in different shifts. There has been a dramatic increase over the past decade in the number of meals eaten outside the home in restaurants or takeaway outlets.
Outcomes
This material addresses aspects of the following syllabus outcomes:
H2.1 The student evaluates the relationship between food, its
production, consumption, promotion and health.
H3.2 The student independently investigates contemporary food
issues.
Source: Board of Studies NSW, Stage 6 Food Technology Syllabus, Preliminary and HSC Courses (1999)
Activity
Read the excerpt from the following article to see the state of play.
Done like the family dinner? ". . . Michael Bittman, senior research fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of NSW, said an increasing number of families ate out in response to pressure on their time. I think indications are that there are fewer occasions when family members are all together for dinner. It is more likely that dinner is combined with other activities, he said. 'There is more use of facilities such as restaurants." According to the study, 70 per cent of even the poorest 10 per cent of Australian households buy a meal out once a fortnight. |
For households on middle incomes, the proportion is more than 80 per cent and for high income earners, it is just under 100 per cent, according to results of a survey taken over a two-week period. Expenditure on outright replacement of home cooking for dual-income families on an income of $1,000 a week has increased by 9 per cent during the past decade. And expenditure on raw foods as a proportion of grocery purchases had declined significantly, while spending on convenience foods has significantly increased. Overall, fewer women are spending time on food preparation. . . ." Patty, Anna (1999) Done like the family dinner?, The Sun-Herald,
Tempo, |
Journal research
The Home Meal Solutions feature in Food Australia, Vol 51, No 9, September 1999, pages 421-427, outlines the Australian food industry's approach to meeting the demand for safer, fresher, healthier and more convenient foods. The feature contains a number of articles which are worth reading. Each article is focused on innovation in the home meal replacement category and will broaden your knowledge and understanding of this trend in the marketplace. You should find the journal in your school or local library.
Activities
- Read the first article, Home Meal Replacements/Solutions
- What's in a name?, Food Australia,
Vol 51, No 9, September 1999, p.421. Complete
the following questions:
- How could you define meal solutions?
- Which food categories offer good growth prospects?
- What challenges are facing the industry?
- Select two articles from the list below and explain why this
innovation is at the forefront of food production.
Food service meal solutions - manufacturers of prepared salad and dessert kits, page 424
Chilled food daily - range of chilled meal components, page 424
Gourmet food packaging - barrier container packaging for gourmet food products, page 426
Cook-in packaging - cook-to-serve packaging for commercially produced cakes, page 426
Natural sauce flavour - new flavour y, a new flavour enhancing substance reducing the need for salt, page 426
Starch for sauces - cold water swelling starches, page 426
Indian foods made in Australia - Australian company producing Sharwood's curry pastes, page 427.
|