Kids with note pads and pens in hands were walking down the Livingston Shoprite aisles on a weeknight.  It is  not for a school project, but rather, they are the Livingston Robotics Club (LRC) robotics teams conducting project research as part of the on-going global FIRST LEGO League challenge.

The 2011 FLL “Food Factor” challenge is all about food safety.  Who would know more about food safety than the people who handle food for a living?  As a part of the “Meet the Experts” series, LRC teams went on different field trips to talk with different experts as a part of the Club enrichment activities. From harvesting to consumption, we got a guided tours by the “middleman”, our local grocer, the Livingston Shoprite Supermarket.

The informative Shoprite tours were held on 10/10/11 and 10/13/11, led by their in-house Retail Dietitian Heather and Christine. Heather prepared a handful of materials about food safety, such as keep cold food cold, hot food hot; wash hands with soap for at least 20 seconds; the food-bourne pathogens; the “dirty dozen”, etc. The presentation was held at the Bistro area, with our expert explaining the different types of diseases that can come from contaminated foods and how to keep food safe from bacteria.  After that, teams toured the different departments of the store to see how foods like dairy products, produce and meat were kept safe from contamination.

Besides building robots, the competition challenge required the teams to learn new knowledge, identify their interests, research a selected topic, meet the experts, come up with an innovative idea to improve a problem, and share their findings with the community.  Members from 6 different LRC FIRST LEGO League teams participated in the Shoprite tours.

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