By Mrs Smart (Science Teacher)

Year 8 students, Charlotte Holden and Jenna Mistry, have been conducting original research in partnership with the Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS).

A study by WRAP, Food Waste in Primary Production in the UK, highlights that over £1bn worth of food is wasted or fed to animals before it even leaves the farm each year. This includes 3.6 million tonnes of food waste, of which 2 million tonnes are edible surplus. These figures underline the environmental and financial cost of food waste, as well as its impact on farmers. Motivated by these issues, Charlotte and Jenna focused their research on public attitudes towards food waste, particularly the sale of wonky vegetables. They hypothesise that customers are less likely to choose misshapen vegetables over those with a uniform appearance and set out to explore these perceptions.

As part of their research, they conducted a taste test to see which type people preferred. This was highly successful, and they plan to run a follow-up blind taste test session in the ICreate space soon. Their next step is to design a questionnaire to survey opinions about wonky veg within the school community.

The duo is also preparing to present their findings at the IRIS conference later this year.

Charlotte and Jenna said: “We’ve really enjoyed working on this project, especially discovering all the different opinions and results. During a carrot tasting on Tuesday 14th January, we were both surprised to find that 34 people preferred the taste of the wonky carrots. This shows that people can form opinions about food even without seeing its full form, as both carrot samples contained wonky carrot pieces. We’d like to thank everyone who participated in the carrot tasting, these results will be very helpful as we continue with our project.”