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GATE Food Additives & Ingredient Technology: practice questions

GATE — Life Sciences (XL), Section U Food Technology · India · IITs and IISc on rotation (2026: IIT Guwahati)

Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papers
10worked here, free
22written to this exam in this subject
11syllabus units

What this subject covers

What each class of additive and ingredient does, how it is chosen and dosed, and how its safety is assessed and regulated: preservatives, antioxidants, emulsifiers, hydrocolloids, colours, sweeteners, flavour enhancers and processing aids.

In the exams: GATE XE-G Section 3 (addition of preservatives and food additives); ICAR AIEEA-PG Code 18 Unit I (food additives); ICAR AICE 35.a Unit 1

What GATE asks from it

GATE — Engineering Sciences (XE), Section G Food Technology

Section 3 names addition of preservatives and food additives. Expect MCQs on functional classes, preservative mechanisms and pH dependence, antioxidants, emulsifier HLB, gelling agents and sweeteners, and NATs on undissociated acid fraction, blend HLB and sweetener equivalence.

GATE — Life Sciences (XL), Section U Food Technology

Same Section 3 content, often through chemistry: pKa and dissociation, radical scavenging, polysaccharide structure and gelation.

Where the 22 questions fall

How our questions for GATE spread across the units of Food Additives & Ingredient Technology. Difficulty: 14 easy, 4 medium, 4 hard.

Preservatives: benzoates, sorbates, sulphites, nitrites and natural antimicrobials4
Definitions, classification and the INS/E-number system2
Safety evaluation: JECFA, ADI and good manufacturing practice2
Antioxidants: synthetic and natural2
Emulsifiers and stabilisers2
Hydrocolloids: starches, gums, pectins, carrageenan, alginates and gelatin2
Food colours: synthetic and natural2
Sweeteners: nutritive and non-nutritive2
Flavour enhancers and acidulants2
Leavening agents, enzymes and processing aids1
Fat replacers and sugar replacers1

10 practice questions, worked

Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.

1 · Definitions, classification and the INS/E-number system · easy

The INS system for food additives is maintained by:

  1. The US FDA
  2. FSSAI
  3. Codex Alimentarius
  4. The European Union
Answer and working

C. Codex Alimentarius

The EU uses the same numbers with an E prefix.

Further reading: Codex CAC/GL 36-1989 and CXS 192-1995

2 · Safety evaluation: JECFA, ADI and good manufacturing practice · easy

The acceptable daily intake of an additive is usually derived by dividing the NOAEL by:

  1. 10
  2. 1,000
  3. 100
  4. 2
Answer and working

C. 100

10 for species differences × 10 for individual variation.

Further reading: JECFA evaluations; WHO EHC 240

3 · Preservatives: benzoates, sorbates, sulphites, nitrites and natural antimicrobials · easy

Weak-acid preservatives act mainly in their:

  1. Undissociated form
  2. Dissociated anion form
  3. Esterified form
  4. Oxidised form
Answer and working

A. Undissociated form

The neutral molecule crosses cell membranes.

Further reading: Davidson, Taylor and David, Antimicrobials in Food

4 · Preservatives: benzoates, sorbates, sulphites, nitrites and natural antimicrobials · medium

At pH equal to the pKa of a weak-acid preservative, the undissociated fraction is:

  1. 50%
  2. 91%
  3. 9%
  4. 100%
Answer and working

A. 50%

Undissociated fraction = 1/(1 + 10^0) = 0.5.

Further reading: Davidson, Taylor and David, Antimicrobials in Food

5 · Preservatives: benzoates, sorbates, sulphites, nitrites and natural antimicrobials · medium

Nitrite is added to cured meats mainly to:

  1. Add sweetness to the meat
  2. Lower the pH of the meat
  3. Increase water-holding capacity
  4. Control C. botulinum and fix colour
Answer and working

D. Control C. botulinum and fix colour

It forms nitrosomyoglobin.

Further reading: Davidson, Taylor and David, Antimicrobials in Food

6 · Antioxidants: synthetic and natural · easy

Which is a natural antioxidant widely used in clean-label products?

  1. Rosemary extract
  2. Tert-butylhydroquinone
  3. Propyl gallate
  4. Butylated hydroxytoluene
Answer and working

A. Rosemary extract

Carnosic acid and carnosol are active.

Further reading: Branen et al., Food Additives; Saltmarsh, Essential Guide to Food Additives

7 · Food colours: synthetic and natural · easy

Tartrazine belongs to which chemical class of synthetic colours?

  1. Triarylmethane dyes
  2. Xanthene dyes
  3. Azo dyes
  4. Indigoid dyes
Answer and working

C. Azo dyes

Erythrosine is xanthene; brilliant blue triarylmethane.

Further reading: Branen et al., Food Additives; Saltmarsh, Essential Guide to Food Additives

8 · Sweeteners: nutritive and non-nutritive · easy

The reference sweetener with relative sweetness 1 is:

  1. Fructose
  2. Lactose
  3. Glucose
  4. Sucrose
Answer and working

D. Sucrose

Glucose is about 0.7.

Further reading: O'Brien Nabors, Alternative Sweeteners

9 · Sweeteners: nutritive and non-nutritive · hard

Sucralose is about 600 times as sweet as sucrose. How much sucralose matches the sweetness of 100 g of sucrose?

  1. 0.17 g
  2. 6 g
  3. 1.7 g
  4. 0.017 g
Answer and working

A. 0.17 g

Sucrose mass / relative sweetness = 100/600 = 0.17 g.

Further reading: O'Brien Nabors, Alternative Sweeteners

10 · Leavening agents, enzymes and processing aids · easy

Which leavening agent is suitable only for thin, low-moisture products such as biscuits?

  1. Yeast
  2. Ammonium bicarbonate
  3. Baking powder
  4. Sodium bicarbonate
Answer and working

B. Ammonium bicarbonate

Ammonia escapes only from thin, dry products.

Further reading: Branen et al., Food Additives; Saltmarsh, Essential Guide to Food Additives

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Read the subject

Food Additives & Ingredient TechnologyThe full study manual, free GATEFormat, sections and how it has changed

More GATE practice

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Food Additives & Ingredient Technology for other exams

ICAR AIEEA-PG / PGS · IndiaGATE · IndiaICAR AICE-JRF/SRF · India

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