What is the Food Investigation Task, and how do you investigate the properties of ingredients?
NEA 1, the Food Investigation Task: investigating the working characteristics and functional and chemical properties of ingredients through practical experiments, the structure of the 1500 to 2000 word report, and how it is marked.
A focused answer on NEA 1, the Food Investigation Task, for OCR GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition (J309), covering how to investigate the functional and chemical properties of ingredients, the structure of the 1500 to 2000 word report, fair testing, and how it is marked.
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What this dot point is asking
OCR wants you to understand NEA 1, the Food Investigation Task: investigating the working characteristics and functional and chemical properties of ingredients through practical experiments, writing it up as a 1500 to 2000 word report, and the principles of fair testing that the marking rewards.
What the Food Investigation Task is
Typical investigations look at the science you study in food science, for example how the amount or type of fat affects pastry, how different starches thicken a sauce, how raising agents affect a cake, or how gluten development affects bread.
Structuring the report
Fair testing
A valid investigation is a fair test: you change only the one thing you are testing (the independent variable), keep everything else the same (the control variables), and measure the result (the dependent variable). You should repeat the test and take an average to make the results reliable, reducing the effect of anomalies. Results should be recorded objectively (measured where possible, or using a fair, coded sensory test).
Linking to the science
The highest marks come from explaining the results with the science: for example, that fat coats the flour and limits gluten, so more fat gives a shorter, crumblier pastry; or that more starch relative to liquid gives a thicker gelatinised sauce. The conclusion should answer the original question and refer back to the hypothesis.
Try this
Q1. How many words should the Food Investigation Task report be? [1 mark]
- Cue. 1500 to 2000 words.
Q2. Explain why you should repeat a food investigation. [2 marks]
- Cue. Repeating and averaging makes the results more reliable by reducing the effect of a one-off error or anomaly.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR 20186 marksDescribe how you would plan and carry out a fair investigation into how the amount of fat affects the texture of shortcrust pastry.Show worked answer →
A 6-mark free-response question framed around the Food Investigation Task.
Form a hypothesis (for example, more fat gives a shorter, more crumbly pastry up to a point). Plan a fair test: vary only the amount of fat (the independent variable) while keeping all other variables the same (the same flour, water, mixing method, rolling thickness, oven temperature and baking time). Make several samples with different fat amounts.
Test the results objectively: measure texture (for example by a sensory test with coded samples, or by counting how the pastry crumbles or snaps), record the results in a table, and repeat for reliability. Analyse the results, draw a conclusion linked to the science (fat coats the flour and limits gluten, giving a shorter texture), and evaluate the method.
Top-band answers (5 to 6 marks) include a hypothesis, a fair test with controlled variables, objective recording, repetition, and a science-linked conclusion.
OCR 20204 marksExplain why controlling variables and repeating results are important in a food investigation.Show worked answer →
A 4-mark structured question.
Controlling variables (keeping everything the same except the one you are testing) makes the test fair, so any difference in the result is caused by the variable you changed and not by something else. Without control, you cannot be sure what caused the result.
Repeating results and taking an average makes them more reliable, because it reduces the effect of a one-off error or anomaly. Repeated, consistent results give more confidence in the conclusion.
Markers reward control of variables for a fair test (so the result is due to the one change) and repetition for reliability (reducing the effect of errors).
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