Local schoolchildren had a taste of a career as a food technologist.

Year seven children at Malsis School, Cross Hills, took a look at Creating Savoury Flavours as an additional part of their science curriculum.

Run by Skipton-based Verner Wheelock Assoc-iates (VWA), the course is designed to nurture a new generation of food scientists.

“There is a shortage of food technology graduates coming into the food industry and we hope that we have inspired one or two of these youngsters to see that studying science can lead to an exciting career with food,” said Dr David Baines, an associate of VWA.

The school’s head of science, Richard Skillington, said: “We wanted to give the pupils more experience of science outside the curriculum. They worked in groups to create a winning formula for gravy flavouring.”