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Government & Defence - Primary Products Inspector
Spot Checking (ideas from Reuban West, ACU Education Student) Primary Middle Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy Australian Curriculum General Capability: Personal and social capability
1. A primary products inspector main job regarding meat is to make sure all meat, poultry and eggs comply with Australian Standards. These inspectors can work for a variety of different meat companies from supermarket owned abbatoirs to private abbatoirs, but their job never changes. When we buy our meat from a Supermarket, we buy them relatively fresh. When the meat unit of a Supermarket cuts and packages the meat for sale the meat is given a use-by date which usually ends 5 to 7 days after the meat is cut. The plastic and trays the meat sits in are what help prolong the meats life. As meat is a popular item the butchers in Supermarkets are always restocking their items. When they restock they have to rotate the items. This means they look at the use-by date of the meats and push the newest cuts to the back and bring the older ones to the front in an effort to not waste their meat. In some cases when meat has 2 days remaining in their use-by date they are reduced at "sale" prices. Your task is to go to up to 3 supermarkets and perform a spot check on the meat department. You will check that not only are the meats fresh but if they have been successfully rotated and are stored correctly.
Ask the butcher in the meat department how much wastage occurs in any one week. Write down all the used-by dates and calculate the percentage that are or should be in the "sale" time. Can you see, at a glance, which products are the most popular?
4. Ask the person in your family who mainly buys the family meat - how do they decide what meat to buy? Do they buy any meat on sale with a close used by date? Why? Why not?
"Horse Meat Scandal" - Is it ethical to eat horse meat? (some ideas from Reuban West, ACU Education Student) Middle Secondary Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy Australian Curriculum General Capability: Ethical Understanding Philosophy Cooperative Learning Activity
1. In groups of 4 - 5 students you are
going to investigate the horse meat scandal. From late 2012 to 2013 there was a very
public scandal regarding the use of Horse Meat in products which were
labelled as beef. This scandal gave rise to calls for a new inspection
process - although a primary products inspector was the first to alert the
public. The scandal effected countries in Europe to Australia, causing a
major panic on the part of consumers. Read and analyse the following articles that discuss the scandal in depth. Use the Expert Jigsaw Strategy to do this analysis.
2. What are the issues involved? List them and compare your list with your group. 3. The issue of trust and that labeling is important. But what about the issue of the Ethics of Food: Why not Horse Meat? 4. As a class, read this article and hold a Socratic Seminar using the following Socratic Seminar Guidelines Focus on the following questions: "The fact remains that our food taboos are selective, and based on feelings as well as tradition and convenience. Some people won’t eat “anything with a face.” Some won’t eat anything with a cute face. Some will eat anything as long as it no longer has a face.
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