TastEd

✨ Some teacher feedback on TastEd! ✨

“I work with extremely vulnerable children and seeing the spark in their eyes as they use their different senses is wonderful. The lesson plans are great and offer so many options. TastEd is truly wonderful and I am glad it is part of my professional life.”

We are always inspired to hear first-hand experiences from teachers of TastEd making a real difference to children's lives.

Knowing that our lesson plans (created by food writer Bee Wilson) are making such a difference to children's lives makes us wish that every child in every school could benefit from TastEd.

If you are a UK primary school teacher or nursery practitioner, do head to our website for details on how to sign up to access our full set of resources for FREE.

https://www.tasteeducation.com/sign-up/

Are you a food and textiles teacher? We are excited to share this professional development opportunity for food and textiles teachers 📚

All Saints Educational Trust are offering individual awards for trainee and practicing food and textiles teachers to support teaching qualifications or their professional development.

Applications are open now until September 1.

For further information and to apply, go to: https://aset.org.uk/individual-awards/

What is sensory food education? 👀✋👃👂👅
Sensory food education is a hands-on approach, helping children explore food using all five senses: touch, look, smell, sound and taste.

By creating positive, playful experiences with food, children build confidence, curiosity and language skills while developing a healthier relationship with what they eat.

As children become more familiar with vegetables, they discover new preferences. Through exploration and fun, children learn to love fresh vegetables and fruits, along with the confidence and curiosity to try new foods in the future!

When was the last time you tried something new? 👅

Children are often confronted with new tastes, and it can take a while to become familiar and really learn to love a new food.

Taste education (sometimes called sensory food education) invites children to see, smell, touch, and really explore a vegetable or fruit before they taste it. It builds curiosity and confidence and helps create a positive relationship with what’s on their plate. A squishy blueberry, crunchy, loud celery, the smell of fresh mint… these small moments shape confident, adventurous eaters.

We are making food exploration fun, pressure-free, and full of discovery. 🌱

Did you know asparagus is traditionally harvested from St George’s Day (today - 23rd April) through to the Summer Solstice?

This window has shifted with our changing climate, but growers still stick to a short harvesting season to make sure those vibrant green spears return year after year.
Patience is key: nothing is harvested for the first two years. But after that, growers are rewarded with a crop each season. Once harvesting ends, the plant transforms, growing tall, bushy and feathery before dying back over winter, ready to begin again.

Have you tried asparagus? How do you like yours cooked?

You can find out more vegetable facts, school food news and TastEd updates in our half-termly newsletter: https://www.tasteeducation.com/newsletter/

School food standards are changing. For the first time in 13 years, the government is updating regulations to bring more fresh vegetables, fruit, and whole grains onto children’s plates.

But putting vegetables on the plate is only half the story. How do we help children actually want to eat them? That’s where sensory food education comes in. By giving children the chance to explore vegetables with all their senses outside the pressure of mealtimes, we help them build familiarity, confidence, and develop a taste for vegetables.

We’re currently piloting this approach with Essex County Council. As early years foundation stage nutrition guidance was updated, TastEd is supporting settings to help children develop tastes that match the food they’re being served. Lasting change doesn’t come from rules alone, it comes from changing how children experience food. Because the foods we eat are the foods we love. 🧡

Join the TastEd team 🥕

If food education is your passion, this is an exciting opportunity to make a real impact. You’ll train and inspire teachers, work directly in schools, and play a key role in shaping what sensory food education looks like across the UK.

Food Education Officer | Deadline for applications: 29th April

https://www.tasteeducation.com/work-with-us/

Now we’re back from Easter, 500 new breakfast clubs have launched as part of the Department for Education's national roll out.

These breakfasts will be healthy, nutritious and varied. Our friends, Magic Breakfast UK, have proven how they can boost children’s attendance, behaviour and learning.

But they also offer a huge opportunity to broaden our children’s tastes and rethink what breakfast can be. Check out our latest blog, written by Anna Shepard, to find out about breakfast in all its forms!

https://www.tasteeducation.com/rethinking-breakfast/

Let’s rethink breakfast.

What does breakfast look like in your home? A slice of toast? A bowl of cereal? Maybe porridge or even a fry-up. Whatever it is, it’s likely a meal you wouldn’t eat at any other time of day.

But why?

Around the world, breakfast looks very different - it might be yesterday’s leftovers, dahl and paratha, chilaquiles or fish and rice.

In our latest blog, Anna Shepard explores how British breakfasts became so dominated by ultra-processed cereals and why the morning meal can be the perfect time to introduce children to new flavours - including vegetables.

https://www.tasteeducation.com/rethinking-breakfast/ 🧡