CCEA GCSE Home Economics: Food and Nutrition: complete guide to the two units, the content areas and how to study each module
A complete guide to CCEA GCSE Home Economics: Food and Nutrition (Northern Ireland). Covers Unit 1 Food and Nutrition (the written paper) and Unit 2 Practical Food and Nutrition (the controlled assessment), the four Unit 1 content areas, how the assessment is structured and weighted, and how to study each module for top grades.
CCEA GCSE Home Economics: Food and Nutrition (specification code 4660) is a single GCSE set and marked by CCEA in Northern Ireland. It is made of two equally weighted units: a written paper and a practical controlled assessment. This page is the index: below is a map of the study modules, the assessment structure, and how to study each one.
The CCEA Food and Nutrition units and study modules
The qualification is linear (all assessment at the end) and built around Unit 1 Food and Nutrition (written) and Unit 2 Practical Food and Nutrition (controlled assessment). We have grouped the Unit 1 content into four study modules that follow the specification's content areas, plus a concise overview of the Unit 2 practical, each with an overview guide and focused answer pages.
- Food and nutrition
- The science of nutrients: the macronutrients protein, fat and carbohydrate; the micronutrients vitamins and minerals; water and fibre; and food energy, energy balance and basal metabolic rate. Start with the Food and nutrition overview.
- Diet and health through life
- Applying nutrition to people: the dietary needs of life stages and groups, current dietary guidelines including the Eatwell Guide, and diet-related conditions such as obesity, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, anaemia, dental caries and osteoporosis. Start with the Diet and health through life overview.
- The science of food
- What happens to food scientifically: the functional and chemical properties of ingredients, cooking and heat transfer, food spoilage, food preservation, and food safety and hygiene. Start with the Science of food overview.
- Being an effective consumer
- Making informed choices: food labelling, the factors affecting food choice, food security and sustainability, and food provenance. Start with the Being an effective consumer overview.
- Practical food and nutrition (Unit 2)
- A concise overview of the controlled assessment, the food investigation and food preparation task, and the research, planning, making and evaluation stages. Start with the Practical food and nutrition overview.
Assessment structure
CCEA GCSE Home Economics: Food and Nutrition is assessed by one written unit and one practical controlled assessment, each worth half the marks.
- Unit 1 Food and Nutrition is an external written paper worth 50%. It uses short, structured questions, data questions and longer answers, with marks for the quality of written communication on extended answers, drawn from the four content areas.
- Unit 2 Practical Food and Nutrition is a controlled assessment worth 50%, marked by the teacher and moderated by CCEA. Students complete a set task involving a food investigation and food preparation, assessed across research, planning, making and evaluation.
How to study each module
Work content area by content area against the CCEA specification, because questions are written directly from it. Learn each nutrient as a set (sources, functions, deficiency and excess), each food-science idea with an example, the Eatwell Guide and diet-related conditions, the danger-zone figures and the labelling rules. The exam rewards applying nutrition to real people and meals, so practise that. For Unit 2, prepare a range of practical skills and rehearse safe, hygienic, timed working and clear evaluation.
Pick a module overview above to begin, then work through each topic answer page and finish with the matching quiz.
Home Economics: Food & Nutrition guides
In-depth written guides with paired practice quizzes.
- CCEA GCSE Food and Nutrition: Being an effective consumer overview
An overview of the being an effective consumer module of CCEA GCSE Home Economics: Food and Nutrition, mapping food labelling, the factors affecting food choice, food security and sustainability, and food provenance, and how they are examined on Unit 1.
7 min readRead → - CCEA GCSE Food and Nutrition: Diet and health through life overview
An overview of the diet and health through life module of CCEA GCSE Home Economics: Food and Nutrition, mapping dietary needs across the life stages, the current dietary guidelines including the Eatwell Guide, and diet-related conditions, and how they are examined on Unit 1.
7 min readRead → - CCEA GCSE Food and Nutrition: Food and nutrition overview
An overview of the food and nutrition module of CCEA GCSE Home Economics: Food and Nutrition, mapping the macronutrients protein, fat and carbohydrate, the micronutrients vitamins and minerals, water and fibre, and food energy and metabolism, and how they are examined on Unit 1.
7 min readRead → - CCEA GCSE Food and Nutrition: The science of food overview
An overview of the science of food module of CCEA GCSE Home Economics: Food and Nutrition, mapping the functional and chemical properties of ingredients, cooking and heat transfer, food spoilage, food preservation, and food safety and hygiene, and how they are examined on Unit 1.
7 min readRead → - CCEA GCSE Food and Nutrition: Unit 2 practical food and nutrition overview
An overview of Unit 2 Practical Food and Nutrition, the CCEA GCSE controlled assessment worth 50 percent, covering the food investigation and food preparation tasks, the four stages of research, planning, making and evaluating, and how the written Unit 1 content feeds into it.
6 min readRead →
Home Economics: Food & Nutrition practice quizzes
Multiple-choice drills with worked answer explanations. Your scores stay on this device.
- CCEA GCSE Food and Nutrition being an effective consumer overview quiz14 questionsStart →
- CCEA GCSE Food and Nutrition diet and health through life overview quiz14 questionsStart →
- CCEA GCSE Food and Nutrition food and nutrition overview quiz15 questionsStart →
- CCEA GCSE Food and Nutrition Unit 2 practical overview quiz12 questionsStart →
- CCEA GCSE Food and Nutrition the science of food overview quiz15 questionsStart →
The CCEA-GCSE system, explained
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