← England Food Preparation & Nutrition
England · AQASyllabus
Food Preparation & Nutrition syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the England Food Preparation & Nutritionsyllabus, with a focused answer for each one. Click any dot point for a worked explainer, past exam questions, and links to related dot points. Written by Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic's latest AI.
Food choice
Module overview →- Why do people choose the foods they do?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.8 min answer →
- What must food labels show and how does marketing influence what we buy?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.8 min answer →
- How do religion, culture and ethical beliefs shape what people eat?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.8 min answer →
- How do we test and describe the taste, look and feel of food objectively?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.7 min answer →
Food, nutrition and health
Module overview →- How does energy balance work and what happens when the diet goes wrong?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.8 min answer →
- What are the macronutrients and what do they do in the body?Protein, fat and carbohydrate: their chemical structure, functions, sources, biological and complementary value, and what happens with excess or deficiency.9 min answer →
- Why does the body need vitamins, minerals and water in small amounts?Fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins, major minerals and trace elements, water and dietary fibre: their functions, sources and the effects of deficiency.9 min answer →
- How do nutritional needs change at different life stages?How the nutritional needs of babies, children, teenagers, adults, the elderly and people with specific conditions differ across the life cycle.8 min answer →
- How do we plan a healthy, balanced diet using the Eatwell Guide and dietary guidelines?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.8 min answer →
Food provenance
Module overview →- How does the food we eat affect the environment?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.8 min answer →
- How is raw food processed into the products we buy, and how is it preserved?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.8 min answer →
- Where does our food come from and how is it grown, reared and caught?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.8 min answer →
- How can we make food production and our own food habits more sustainable?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.8 min answer →
Food safety
Module overview →- How do we buy, store and prepare food so it stays safe from shop to plate?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.8 min answer →
- What makes food go off and how do bacteria cause food poisoning?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.8 min answer →
- What are the core rules of food hygiene that keep food safe to eat?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.8 min answer →
Food science
Module overview →- How does heat travel into food during cooking and how do we choose a cooking method?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.8 min answer →
- What chemical changes happen to proteins, carbohydrates and fats when we prepare and cook food?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.9 min answer →
- How do raising agents make food rise and how do emulsions hold oil and water together?How chemical, mechanical and biological raising agents work to introduce gas into mixtures, and how emulsifiers form and stabilise emulsions of oil and water.8 min answer →
- Why do we cook food and how does cooking affect its nutrients?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.7 min answer →