Meal Planning, Food Preparation and Preservation
Meal Planning, Food Preparation and Preservation tests whether you can plan balanced meals for different people, prepare food with minimum nutrient loss, and choose safe preservation methods.
Meal planning rules
- Balance the food groups across the day; include cereals, pulses or animal foods, vegetables and fruits, milk, and limited fat and sugar.
- Consider age, sex, activity, health, food habits, religion, budget, season, local availability and family size.
- Plan for colour, texture, flavour and variety; avoid repeating the same dish and use seasonal foods.
- Keep hygiene in buying, storage, preparation and serving.
Preparation and preservation
- Boiling can dissolve water-soluble vitamins; steaming and pressure cooking preserve more. Frying adds fat; prolonged high heat damages nutrients.
- Spoilage is caused by microorganisms, enzymes, insects, moisture, oxygen and temperature.
- Preservation methods: drying, salting, pickling, canning, freezing, pasteurization and refrigeration. Each works by reducing moisture, killing microbes, lowering temperature or excluding air.
Worked example
Plan breakfast for an active adolescent: poha with peas and peanuts, curd, and a banana. Reasoning: poha supplies carbohydrate; peas and peanuts add protein and fibre; curd adds protein and calcium; banana adds potassium and energy. The meal is quick, seasonal and affordable. If the family is short of time, the same nutrients can be rearranged, not dropped.
Traps
Overboiling vegetables and discarding the water; using stale oil for frying; preserving food in unclean jars; planning an expensive menu without checking season; forgetting that a meal plan must be reviewed when income or health changes.