The British Potato Council, Home Grown Cereals Authority, Horticulture Development Council, Meat and Livestock Commission and Milk Development Council are jointly developing a comprehensive interactive website for all foods.

Britain’s five major farming levy bodies have teamed up to create a learning aid that saves levy money and, crucially, reflects how nutrition is generally taught in schools - covering all food groups together rather than focusing on one in isolation.

The site - www.foodafactoflife.org.uk - will be officially launched at a major education show in November. Teachers will be able to download classroom and lesson resources, while interactive projects and information sheets will be available for children to help them discover more about the food they eat.

The content is carefully tailored to the teaching curriculum for five to 11 year olds (educational keystages 1 and 2), while those seeking more specific information on particular food groups will also find links direct to the more detailed existing sites operated by a number of the individual levy bodies.

Research among teachers has confirmed strong demand for the combined resource, as attention continues to focus on issues such as childhood obesity, salt and healthy eating in general, yet only limited materials are currently available that are easily accessible and suitably exciting yet credible.

Uptake among the educational community, and integration with healthy eating initiatives like ‘5 a day’, ‘Hungry for Success’ and ‘Food in Schools’, will also be assisted by the levy bodies’ decision to collaborate with the authoritative British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) to develop the website - a partnership which has also resulted in match funding by the BNF.

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