Abstract
This research attempts to clarify the effects of eco-cooking education on the students in a home economics teacher training course. To discover what differences were made by a lecture on eco-cooking, one typical dish each of Japanese, European, and Chinese food was cooked by two different methods: ordinary cooking and eco-cooking.
The comparison made it clear that the two kinds of cooking differed in 8 items. As a result of eco-cooking, namely, the effective use of energy, water, and ingredients, about 40% and 70% of the amount of gas and water used for ordinary cooking were saved, respectively. The amount of garbage also decreased by about 74%. In addition, by improving the way of cutting vegetables, it was possible to decrease their waste ratio by 8 to 10%. Moreover, the number of cooking utensils decreased by 20 to 30%, and the amount of CO2 emissions was reduced by about 50%. The cost of gas and water for cooking was reduced by about 60%, which is equivalent to about 11 yen.
The conducted questionnaire survey shows that some items for eco-cooking are easy to practice, whereas others are hard.
Thus, eco-cooking has been found to be effective in home economics education. It has been clarified that eco-cooking education includes some important views which are closely related to food, environmental, and consumer education in home economics education courses
