NARRATOR:
You will hear two food science students discussing their course and a recent project with their tutor.
NARRATOR:
First you have some time to look at questions 21 to 26.
NARRATOR:
Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 26.
TUTOR:
Thanks for meeting me, Nadia and Fergus.
TUTOR:
I'd like to hear what you thought about different parts of the course.
TUTOR:
Where shall we start?
NADIA:
I really liked the food safety sessions.
NADIA:
Some of the figures were unexpected, although other points were familiar.
NADIA:
For instance, I already knew obesity was becoming more common.
FERGUS:
It's reported quite often.
FERGUS:
What surprised me was learning that contaminated food can cause more than 200 separate illnesses.
NADIA:
I had no idea the figure was anywhere near that high.
NADIA:
I knew that resistance to antibiotics was increasing, but I hadn't understood what was contributing to it.
FERGUS:
One cause is the use of antibiotics in livestock.
FERGUS:
When those animals later enter the human food chain, the drugs can do so as well.
FERGUS:
That connection was completely new to me.
NADIA:
We also heard a lot about plastic from food packaging reaching the sea, but I think everyone in the class had encountered that issue before.
FERGUS:
And food waste deserved more attention.
FERGUS:
We already hear plenty about edible food being thrown away because people mistrust date labels, but the lecturer only referred to it briefly.
TUTOR:
Fergus, how useful were the sessions led by visiting speakers?
FERGUS:
The best one for me described a project designed to stop food producers giving customers false information.
TUTOR:
The food fraud project?
FERGUS:
I was impressed that it considered so many kinds of consumer.
FERGUS:
It covered people following religious food rules, vegetarians and vegans, and those who have allergies.
NADIA:
The scientific side was interesting too.
FERGUS:
Yes, though DNA analysis itself isn't recent, reliable techniques have existed for some time.
FERGUS:
The clever part was arranging for food to be tested repeatedly at different points between the producer and the customer.
NADIA:
That meant they could check both where a product came from and whether it contained the ingredients shown on the label.
FERGUS:
So buyers had stronger evidence about what they were purchasing.
NADIA:
The research team also tried to make its findings public.
FERGUS:
They did, but that part wasn't handled particularly well.
FERGUS:
The information didn't reach as many people as it should have.
TUTOR:
Are there any subjects you both think we should add to the course?
NADIA:
I'd like to examine ways of raising crop yields without harming the natural environment.
FERGUS:
We've already spent quite a lot of time on sustainable farming.
FERGUS:
We've done far less on the fishing industry, and the risk of taking fish faster than stocks can recover.
NADIA:
Protecting those stocks would make an excellent topic.
NADIA:
Another possibility is nutrition designed around the needs of each person, now that technology can analyze those needs accurately.
FERGUS:
I'm not convinced.
FERGUS:
That seems closer to medicine than to food science.
NADIA:
We could compare what people eat in different parts of the world and how consumption patterns vary.
FERGUS:
Yes, that would be relevant.
FERGUS:
And I'm sure the rest of the class would be interested as well.
NADIA:
What about digital development, such as food produced by 3D printers or intelligent packaging?
FERGUS:
Perhaps, though I think that may be too specialized for this course.
NARRATOR:
Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 27 to 30.
NARRATOR:
Now listen and answer questions 27 to 30.
TUTOR:
I'd also like to discuss your project in which you developed a new food product.
TUTOR:
Tell me how you approached each stage.
TUTOR:
First, you had to agree on the overall aim.
FERGUS:
We wanted to make something people could eat while traveling rather than only at a table in a restaurant.
NADIA:
So we chose falafel, the snack that originally came from the Middle East.
FERGUS:
We settled on both the aim and the product very quickly.
FERGUS:
Other groups apparently struggled with that decision and lost quite a lot of time, but we didn't.
NADIA:
The next stage was the literature review.
NADIA:
Neither of us had written one before, so the project handbook was extremely helpful.
FERGUS:
Especially the section explaining how the material should be organized and presented.
TUTOR:
Then you moved on to developing the product itself.
FERGUS:
Yes, we had to choose the ingredients, and we wanted our version to be noticeably different from standard falafel.
NADIA:
Eventually, we selected jackfruit.
NADIA:
It was completely unfamiliar to us because neither of us had ever tasted it.
FERGUS:
Although it's a fruit, it works surprisingly well in savory food.
TUTOR:
And what happened when you began producing the falafel?
FERGUS:
Finding a reliable method was more demanding than I'd expected, since I'd never made it before.
NADIA:
We used a basic recipe first and then changed it through trial and error.
NADIA:
Several attempts failed, so we kept adjusting the mixture.
FERGUS:
It was certainly challenging, but we enjoyed experimenting and the final version worked well.
FERGUS:
Yes, the whole process was great fun.
TUTOR:
That gives me a very clear picture of your project.
NARRATOR:
That is the end of part three.
NARRATOR:
You now have one minute to check your answers to part three.
