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England · AQAQ&A
Food Preparation & NutritionQ&A by dot point
A short Q&A bank for every England Food Preparation & Nutrition syllabus dot point. Each question and answer is drawn directly from our worked dot-point page, so you can scan key concepts before opening the long-form answer.
Food choice
- The many factors that affect food choice, including physical activity level, health, cost, availability, time and skills, preferences, culture, religion, ethics, the environment and seasonality.2Q&A pairs
- The legal and voluntary information on food labels, including mandatory information, nutritional labelling and traffic-light colour coding, allergen labelling, and how marketing and advertising influence food choice.2Q&A pairs
- How religious, cultural, moral and ethical beliefs influence food choice, including the dietary rules of major religions and the reasons for vegetarian, vegan and other ethical diets.2Q&A pairs
- How the senses work together to judge food, the purpose of sensory evaluation, and the main sensory testing methods (preference, discrimination and ranking or rating tests) and how to carry them out fairly.2Q&A pairs
Food, nutrition and health
- Energy balance, basal metabolic rate and physical activity level, how the body uses energy from macronutrients, and the diet-related health problems caused by an unbalanced diet, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, tooth decay and bone health.2Q&A pairs
- Protein, fat and carbohydrate: their chemical structure, functions, sources, biological and complementary value, and what happens with excess or deficiency.2Q&A pairs
- Fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins, major minerals and trace elements, water and dietary fibre: their functions, sources and the effects of deficiency.2Q&A pairs
- How the nutritional needs of babies, children, teenagers, adults, the elderly and people with specific conditions differ across the life cycle.2Q&A pairs
- How to plan balanced meals and diets using current government guidelines, the Eatwell Guide, the eight tips for healthy eating, reference intakes, and how to make healthier choices and adapt recipes.2Q&A pairs
Food provenance
- The environmental impact of food production and consumption, including food miles, carbon footprint, packaging, seasonality, locally produced food and the effects of food transport and intensive farming.2Q&A pairs
- How food is processed and produced, including primary and secondary processing, the production of staple foods such as flour, milk and cheese, fortification, and methods of food preservation.2Q&A pairs
- Where and how foods are grown, reared and caught, including intensive and organic farming, free-range systems, sustainable fishing, genetic modification, and what food provenance means.2Q&A pairs
- Sustainability of food, including food security, sustainable production and consumption, reducing food waste in the home and industry, recycling and composting, and the impact of food waste.3Q&A pairs
Food safety
- How to buy, store, prepare, cook, cool, reheat and freeze food safely, including correct storage of different foods, defrosting, the rules for reheating, and following food safety from purchase to consumption.2Q&A pairs
- The signs and causes of food spoilage by micro-organisms and enzymes, the conditions bacteria need to grow, the main food-poisoning bacteria and their sources, and the difference between use-by and best-before dates.2Q&A pairs
- The principles of food safety including personal, kitchen and equipment hygiene, preventing cross-contamination, the four Cs (cleaning, cooking, chilling, cross-contamination), and using temperature control and probes correctly.2Q&A pairs
Food science
- The methods of heat transfer (conduction, convection and radiation), the main water-based, fat-based and dry cooking methods, and how to select an appropriate method for a given food and outcome.2Q&A pairs
- The functional and chemical properties of food, including protein denaturation, coagulation, gluten formation and foam formation, carbohydrate gelatinisation, dextrinisation and caramelisation, and the role of fats and oils in shortening, aeration and plasticity.2Q&A pairs
- How chemical, mechanical and biological raising agents work to introduce gas into mixtures, and how emulsifiers form and stabilise emulsions of oil and water.2Q&A pairs
- Why food is cooked - to make it safe, palatable, digestible and varied - and how cooking and preparation affect the nutritional value of food, including the effect of heat, water and air on vitamins.2Q&A pairs