In This Issue

Live Webinar: Positive Food Exposure Through Play Based Learning

Neutral Food Language

Food Safety Posters

Lower Sugar Baking Tips

Menu Planning in ECEC - FREE Workshop

2025 Food Safety Supervisor Courses

Recipes

Training Opportunities

Access Links

Live Webinar: Positive food exposure through play based learning

Neutral Food Language

When talking about food with children, our words help to shape their views and understanding of different foods. Foods are often assigned to moral categories of 'good vs bad' or 'healthy vs unhealthy', however this can be quite unhelpful.

A more helpful way to talk about food is to call foods by using neutral language. For example, when offering some cake for afternoon tea, instead of saying 'here is a yummy treat', say 'here is some afternoon tea', or 'here is some cake'. Or instead of saying 'would you like some healthy vegetables', say 'would you like some carrot and beans with your lunch'. 

We can also help children to understand what a food will taste and feel like when they eat it by talking about its sensory qualities. This could be describing its colour, shape, texture, flavour, how it grows or where it comes from. 

Being mindful of the words we use can go a long way in helping children to develop a positive relationship with food!

Food Safety Posters

Lower Sugar Baking Tips

When offering sweet baked items on the menu, we encourage cooks and chefs to choose recipes that contain minimal amounts of added sugar. A good rule of thumb is to aim for baked items to have no more than 5g of added sugars per serve.

Added sugars can include caster sugar, raw sugar, brown sugar, icing sugar, coconut sugar, rice malt syrup, honey, golden syrup, or maple syrup.

It's not always simple to switch a refined sugar for a fruit puree, so recipes may take some trial and error to get right. Here are some ideas for reducing sugar in baked items:

• Trial recipes with a reduced amount of sugar - often the amount of sugar in a recipe can be reduced by half.
• Choose recipes that include fresh, dried, frozen or pureed fruit for natural sweetness.
• Swap syrups like golden or maple syrup with a fruit puree - apple puree or mashed ripe banana. They provide natural flavour, moisture and sweetness and are great for muffins or slices. 
• If using banana to add sweetness, aim to use extra ripe/ overripe bananas as they will have extra sweetness.
• Swap jam on scones or piklets for fruit compote or stewed fruit.

Menu Planning in ECEC
FREE Workshop

This 2hr virtual workshop is included in Food Foundations subscription for cooks and chefs who work in ECEC settings. The workshop will give you ideas for creating menus with nourishing snacks and meals, and managing dietary requirements of children at your service. We hold one workshop each month. Click on the button below to find out more and register for the April workshop. We look forward to seeing you there! 

2025 Food Safety Supervisor Courses

We offer Food Safety Supervisor training for those working in early years, OSHC, aged care and disability settings. This practical course enables you to complete all assessment on the day, and is delivered by our team of experienced trainers who work within community settings. The course prepares food safety supervisors to supervise and oversee day to day operations and to prevent and recognise food safety hazards in their workplace through nationally recognised training. 

Live Virtual and Face to Face Course Cost: $385 

Click on the button below to register and find out more about the requirements for completing this course (please note the additional requirements for a live virtual course). The course runs from 9am-4pm. Upcoming courses available:

Tuesday 1st July (Face to Face - Northgate Hall)
Tuesday 15th July (Live virtual)
Tuesday 5th August (Live virtual)
Tuesday 30th September (Face to Face - Northgate Hall)

If these options don’t suit, please don't hesitate to email us at training@naqld.org with your preferred date and time. We will try to accommodate your request if possible.

We also offer private courses delivered at your workplace for a minimum of 6 people ($385 per person). Please phone or email us to find out more. 

Recipes

This month's recipes are our Chicken Fried Rice and Apple and Oat Slice. Try these recipes on your menu, or share these with families at your centre. Recipes have quantities for 20, 50 and 100 child sizes serves. Click on the buttons below to download the recipe.

Training opportunities

Online Training 

We offer self-paced online training programs through our partner In Safe Hands. Click on the following buttons for more information and to register.

Level 1 - Safe Food Handling for the Early Years Sector

Mealtimes, Food, and Nutrition for ECEC Educators (0 to 5 year olds)

Coming soon:
Advanced - Safe Food Handling for the Early Years Sector 
Mealtimes, Food, and Nutrition for Kindergarten & Preschool (3 to 5 year olds)
 

Access links

Once logged in to the subscriber section of our website, access the following:

Do you have a question for the Food Foundations team?

Feel free to give us a call (07 3257 4393) or email through your questions to foodfoundations@naqld.org

Nutrition Australia acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land we work on and pays respect to Elders past, present and emerging.