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 papersWhat the body needs from food, how needs change across the life cycle, and how processing raises or lowers the nutritional value of a food. The second half — nutrient losses in processing, bioavailability and fortification — is what makes this a food technologist's nutrition course rather than a dietitian's.
In the exams: GATE XE-G and XL-U Section 1 (nutrition: balanced diet, EAAs, PER, vitamins, minerals, anti-nutrients, deficiency diseases); ICAR AIEEA-PG Code 18 Unit I; ICAR AICE 47 Food and Nutrition
How our questions for GATE spread across the units of Human Nutrition & Nutritional Quality of Processed Foods. Difficulty: 30 easy, 61 medium, 12 hard.
| Proteins: essential amino acids, protein quality, BV, NPU, PER and PDCAAS/DIAAS | 11 | |
| Water-soluble vitamins: functions, sources and deficiency | 10 | |
| Energy: BMR, energy requirements and energy value of foods | 8 | |
| Carbohydrates and dietary fibre in nutrition | 8 | |
| Anti-nutritional factors and their reduction | 8 | |
| Fortification, enrichment and biofortification | 8 | |
| Lipids: essential fatty acids, trans fats and health | 7 | |
| Fat-soluble vitamins: functions, sources and deficiency | 7 | |
| Major minerals and trace elements | 7 | |
| Malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and public-health nutrition | 7 | |
| Effect of processing on nutrients: losses and gains | 7 | |
| Dietary reference values and balanced diets | 6 | |
| Bioavailability and the food matrix | 5 | |
| Nutrition across the life cycle | 4 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
In a nitrogen balance study a subject eats 10 g N; faecal N is 2 g and urinary N is 3 g. Ignoring endogenous losses, the apparent biological value is:
C. 62.5
Absorbed = 10 − 2 = 8 g; retained = 8 − 3 = 5 g; BV = 5 ÷ 8 × 100 = 62.5. 50.0 is NPU (retained ÷ intake); 80.0 is digestibility; 70.0 subtracts only urinary N from intake.
Further reading: Geissler and Powers, Human Nutrition
The main reason FAO recommended DIAAS in place of PDCAAS is that DIAAS:
C. Uses ileal digestibility of each amino acid, since colonic losses do not feed protein synthesis
Nitrogen that reaches the colon is fermented by bacteria; it disappears from faeces but is not available for protein synthesis, so ileal digestibility per amino acid is more accurate. PDCAAS, not DIAAS, is truncated and faecal-based; PER uses rat growth.
Further reading: FAO 2013
WHO recommends that total trans fat intake be kept below:
C. 1% of energy
WHO: trans fat < 1% of energy. 2 g per 100 g of fat is a product limit many countries use for industrial trans fat, not an intake recommendation; 10% is the saturated fat limit.
Further reading: WHO REPLACE package
Which pair of dietary factors respectively enhances and inhibits absorption of non-haem iron?
C. Ascorbic acid enhances; tea polyphenols inhibit
Ascorbic acid reduces Fe³⁺ to Fe²⁺ and chelates it; polyphenols, phytate and calcium inhibit. Meat tissue enhances non-haem iron absorption.
Further reading: Geissler and Powers, Human Nutrition
An adult weighs 85 kg and is 1.70 m tall. Using the WHO BMI cut-offs, the adult is:
C. Overweight, BMI about 29.4
BMI = 85 ÷ 1.70² = 85 ÷ 2.89 = 29.4, in the 25–29.9 overweight range. 50.0 divides by height not squared.
Further reading: Geissler and Powers, Human Nutrition
The term "hidden hunger" refers to:
B. Micronutrient deficiency present without any shortage of energy
Hidden hunger is deficiency of vitamins and minerals such as iron, iodine, vitamin A and zinc, often without visible energy shortage.
Further reading: Geissler and Powers, Human Nutrition
Glucosinolates in brassica vegetables and rapeseed meal are classed as:
B. Goitrogens
Glucosinolate breakdown products (thiocyanate, goitrin) interfere with thyroid iodine uptake or hormone synthesis.
Further reading: Geissler and Powers, Human Nutrition
Vitamin C in a vegetable puree degrades by first-order kinetics with k = 0.02 per min at the holding temperature. The fraction retained after 30 minutes is:
D. 0.55
C/C0 = e^(−kt) = e^(−0.02 × 30) = e^(−0.6) = 0.549 ≈ 0.55. 0.40 assumes linear (zero-order) loss of 2% per min (1 − 0.6); 0.45 is the fraction lost.
Further reading: Fellows, Food Processing Technology
A product must declare 60 mg of vitamin C per serving at the end of shelf life, and stability trials show a 35% loss. The amount to add at manufacture is:
D. 92 mg
Added × (1 − 0.35) = 60, so added = 60 ÷ 0.65 = 92.3 ≈ 92 mg. 81 mg (60 × 1.35) under-doses, leaving 52.7 mg at end of shelf life.
Further reading: WHO/FAO Guidelines on Food Fortification 2006
Restoring thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and iron to white flour roughly to the levels before milling is called:
A. Enrichment, or restoration
Enrichment/restoration replaces processing losses. Biofortification breeds the crop; standardisation evens out natural variation; supplementation gives pills.
Further reading: Codex CXG 9-1987
Ten here, 103 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to GATE in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
Free for ten days, then one subscription of US$10 a month. We would rather say so here than have you find it later.
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