Processed Meat Workshop: Enabling Learning by Experiencing What is in the Market

Abstract

Abstract As consumers, we are faced with several products on our supermarket shelves. It can become overwhelming to understand, during a quick shop run, which product to buy that is value for money, depending on our personal preferences and needs. In this workshop, 53 students (aged 21–22) were divided into10 groups, each with 5–6 students, and each group focused on one type of processed meat available in the Irish market (one higher and one lower quality product). The students: (1) carried out a blind visual and taste assessment of the meat products; (2) were provided with packaging, evaluated it, and matched each product with the correct packaging; (3) were provided with the prices and matched them to the correct product. At the end, the students presented the most useful top 3 tips to give their grandmother when buying their specific meat product. They had 5 min for this with a flipchart, post its, markers and then 1 min to present to the others. A polling app was used to vote for the overall favourite idea, and one winning group was chosen. A before-and-after anonymous survey revealed increased self-reported knowledge and skills gained on meat products, while overall, student feedback was very positive. Before the workshop, 8% of students self-reported to be “very knowledgeable” on meat products, while after the workshop this percentage more than quadrupled to 34% of students. Over 50% of the students said they gained new skills and 9/10 rated this workshop as “really good” or “excellent”. Information © The Author 2026