ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF Food Adulteration, Authenticity & Food Fraud: practice questions
ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) — Food Processing Technology, Food Safety & Quality, Processing and Food Engineering · India · ICAR through the National Testing Agency
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papers
10worked here, free
45written to this exam in this subject
11syllabus units
What this subject covers
Detecting and preventing economically motivated adulteration: common adulterants and their health effects, rapid household and laboratory tests, authenticity methods (isotope ratios, DNA, spectroscopic fingerprinting), vulnerability assessment and supply-chain controls.
In the exams: ICAR AICE 35.a Unit 4 (food adulteration); core of food safety officer and food analyst examinations
Definitions: adulteration, misbranding and food fraud
Common adulterants in milk, oils, spices, honey, beverages and grains
Health effects of adulterants
Rapid tests for adulterants
Laboratory confirmation of adulteration
Authenticity testing: stable isotope ratio analysis
DNA-based species identification and barcoding
Spectroscopic fingerprinting and chemometrics
Geographic origin and organic authentication
Food fraud vulnerability assessment and mitigation
Supply-chain transparency and traceability technologies
Where the 45 questions fall
How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Food Adulteration, Authenticity & Food Fraud. Difficulty: 8 easy, 26 medium, 11 hard.
Authenticity testing: stable isotope ratio analysis
9
Spectroscopic fingerprinting and chemometrics
9
DNA-based species identification and barcoding
8
Geographic origin and organic authentication
8
Definitions: adulteration, misbranding and food fraud
2
Common adulterants in milk, oils, spices, honey, beverages and grains
2
Health effects of adulterants
2
Laboratory confirmation of adulteration
2
Rapid tests for adulterants
1
Food fraud vulnerability assessment and mitigation
1
Supply-chain transparency and traceability technologies
1
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 · Authenticity testing: stable isotope ratio analysis · medium
Which international standard is the reference for carbon isotope ratios?
Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water
Atmospheric nitrogen
Canyon Diablo troilite
Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite
Answer and working
D. Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite
VSMOW is for H and O, air for N, and Canyon Diablo troilite for S.
Further reading: Sun, Modern Techniques for Food Authentication
2 · Authenticity testing: stable isotope ratio analysis · medium
A δ value of −16 ‰ for carbon means the sample has:
Sixteen times more ¹³C than the standard
More ¹³C relative to ¹²C than the standard
Less ¹³C relative to ¹²C than the standard
No ¹³C at all
Answer and working
C. Less ¹³C relative to ¹²C than the standard
Negative δ means depleted in the heavy isotope relative to VPDB.
Further reading: Sun, Modern Techniques for Food Authentication
3 · DNA-based species identification and barcoding · easy
Which gene region is the standard DNA barcode for animals, including fish?
Nuclear ITS
Ribosomal 5S only
Mitochondrial COI
Chloroplast rbcL
Answer and working
C. Mitochondrial COI
About 650 bp of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I; rbcL/matK are plant barcodes.
Further reading: Hebert et al. 2003
4 · Spectroscopic fingerprinting and chemometrics · easy
Which chemometric method is unsupervised?
Principal component analysis
Support vector machine classification
Linear discriminant analysis
PLS discriminant analysis
Answer and working
A. Principal component analysis
PCA finds structure without class labels; the others use known classes.
Further reading: Sun, Modern Techniques for Food Authentication
5 · Spectroscopic fingerprinting and chemometrics · hard
What is untargeted fingerprinting?
Testing DNA of a single species
Measuring only moisture by drying
Searching a sample for one named adulterant at its published legal limit
Comparing a whole-sample signal with authentic material by statistics
Answer and working
D. Comparing a whole-sample signal with authentic material by statistics
It can catch unexpected adulterants that targeted tests miss.
Further reading: Sun, Modern Techniques for Food Authentication
6 · Geographic origin and organic authentication · easy
Under which agreement are geographical indications protected internationally?
Kyoto Protocol
Montreal Protocol
WTO TRIPS Agreement
Codex hygiene code
Answer and working
C. WTO TRIPS Agreement
Articles 22–24 of TRIPS protect geographical indications.
7 · Geographic origin and organic authentication · medium
Which isotope ratio mainly reflects the underlying bedrock of the production area?
¹⁵N/¹⁴N
¹³C/¹²C
²H/¹H
⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr
Answer and working
D. ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr
Strontium isotopes come from weathered rock into soil and plants.
Further reading: Sun, Modern Techniques for Food Authentication
8 · Geographic origin and organic authentication · medium
A trader sells 100 t of 'organic' grain but can document purchases of only 80 t. By what percentage do sales exceed purchases?
25%
80%
20%
125%
Answer and working
A. 25%
(100 − 80)/80 = 0.25. 20% divides by sales instead of purchases.
9 · Food fraud vulnerability assessment and mitigation · hard
Why is a short supply chain a mitigation measure against fraud?
Short chains are exempt from food law
Short chains always have lower prices than long ones
Fewer intermediaries, fewer chances to adulterate
Short chains never require any testing
Answer and working
C. Fewer intermediaries, fewer chances to adulterate
Each handover is a chance for dilution or substitution; direct relationships improve visibility.
Further reading: USP Guidance on Food Fraud Mitigation
10 · Supply-chain transparency and traceability technologies · hard
How can satellite imagery support supply-chain transparency?
By measuring isotope ratios in food from orbit
By automatically replacing all paper certificates with satellite images
By sequencing the DNA of crops
By verifying that claimed farms exist and grow the crops claimed
Answer and working
D. By verifying that claimed farms exist and grow the crops claimed
Remote sensing checks land use and production capacity against claims.
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