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 papersTurning a process into a plant that is hygienic, efficient and safe: hygienic equipment and building design, plant layout, process flow and equipment selection, steam, water, compressed air and refrigeration utilities, instrumentation and automation, energy audit and scale-up. Agricultural Engineering's food-quality-safety-plant-design covers plant location, layout and feasibility reports; this subject adds hygienic engineering (EHEDG and 3-A principles), utilities, automation and energy management in depth.
In the exams: ICAR AIEEA-PG Code 18 Unit II (process equipment design, steam generation, compressed air, automation and process control, food plant layout and design, energy audit); ICAR AICE 41 Units 8–9
How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Food Plant Design, Hygienic Engineering, Utilities & Automation. Difficulty: 36 easy, 49 medium, 26 hard.
| Compressed air and refrigeration utilities | 11 | |
| Energy audit and energy conservation | 11 | |
| Steam generation and distribution | 10 | |
| Process control: feedback loops, PID and PLC/SCADA | 10 | |
| Materials of construction and corrosion in food plants | 9 | |
| Project feasibility and costing of a food plant | 9 | |
| Process flow diagrams and piping and instrumentation diagrams | 8 | |
| Online data acquisition and digital plants | 8 | |
| Plant location and site selection | 7 | |
| Water supply and treatment for food plants | 7 | |
| Instrumentation and sensors in food plants | 7 | |
| Plant layout: product, process and hygienic zoning | 6 | |
| Scale-up and pilot plants | 6 | |
| Hygienic design of equipment: EHEDG and 3-A principles | 2 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
What does a process flow diagram normally include that a block flow diagram does not?
B. Major equipment symbols, main lines with flow direction, key conditions and a stream table
A PFD adds standard equipment symbols, main process lines, operating conditions and a stream table of flows and compositions from material and energy balances. Every valve and instrument belongs on the P&ID; boxes and arrows alone are the block diagram; clearances are layout drawings.
Further reading: See the manual sources: EHEDG guidelines; 3-A Sanitary Standards; Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene; food plant design and process control textbooks
A U-shaped material flow is chosen for a new plant. What is its usual advantage?
C. Receiving and dispatch are on one side and share dock facilities
U-shaped flow brings goods in and out on one side, sharing docks and yard space, while product still moves forward. Crossing raw and finished flows is a hygiene fault, path length is not a goal, and separation between raw and finished goods is still required.
Further reading: See the manual sources: EHEDG guidelines; 3-A Sanitary Standards; Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene; food plant design and process control textbooks
Which tool records the desired closeness between each pair of departments as part of layout planning?
B. A relationship (REL) chart
The REL chart rates how close each pair of activities should be (absolutely necessary to undesirable) and feeds layout design, alongside from-to charts of material movement. Gantt charts schedule projects; fishbone diagrams analyse causes; stream tables give flows.
Further reading: See the manual sources: EHEDG guidelines; 3-A Sanitary Standards; Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene; food plant design and process control textbooks
After repair welding, a stainless steel tank shows rust spots. What is the usual corrective treatment before returning it to service?
C. Clean and passivate with nitric or citric acid
Free iron and heat tint left by welding disrupt the passive film; cleaning and passivating with nitric or citric acid restores it. Paint flakes into product; hot hypochlorite is aggressive and promotes pitting; product does not form a protective film.
Further reading: See the manual sources: EHEDG guidelines; 3-A Sanitary Standards; Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene; food plant design and process control textbooks
Water contains 80 mg/L of calcium and negligible magnesium. What is its hardness expressed as mg/L CaCO3? (Molar masses: Ca 40.08, CaCO3 100.09 g/mol.)
B. 200 mg/L
Hardness as CaCO3 = Ca × (100.09 ÷ 40.08) = 80 × 2.497 = 200 mg/L. Leaving it as 80 forgets the conversion; multiplying by the inverse ratio gives 32; halving applies an equivalent-weight step twice. Water near 300 mg/L as CaCO3 is classed as hard.
Further reading: See the manual sources: EHEDG guidelines; 3-A Sanitary Standards; Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene; food plant design and process control textbooks
A reverse-osmosis unit receives 100 m³/h of feed and produces 75 m³/h of permeate. What is its recovery?
D. 75 %
Recovery = permeate ÷ feed = 75 ÷ 100 = 75 %; the remaining 25 m³/h is concentrate (reject). 25 % is the reject fraction; 133 % inverts the ratio.
Further reading: See the manual sources: EHEDG guidelines; 3-A Sanitary Standards; Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene; food plant design and process control textbooks
Which temperature sensor is standard for pasteuriser and retort control because of its accuracy and stability?
C. Pt100 platinum RTD
Pt100 RTDs are accurate and stable and are the norm for critical thermal processes. Bimetallic devices are crude, glass is a breakage hazard in production, and infrared measures surfaces, not the product stream.
Further reading: See the manual sources: EHEDG guidelines; 3-A Sanitary Standards; Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene; food plant design and process control textbooks
A heater's incoming product temperature is measured and used to adjust steam flow before the outlet temperature changes. What strategy is this?
B. Feedforward control
Acting on a measured disturbance before it affects the controlled variable is feedforward; it is usually combined with feedback to correct what the model misses. Pure feedback waits for the outlet temperature to deviate.
Further reading: See the manual sources: EHEDG guidelines; 3-A Sanitary Standards; Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene; food plant design and process control textbooks
Which standard structures batch control so that recipes are separated from equipment control?
C. ISA-88
ISA-88 defines batch control models, separating recipes from equipment logic for flexible, repeatable batches with full records. ISA-95 links plant and enterprise systems, ISO 8573-1 is air purity, ISO 14159 machinery hygiene.
Further reading: See the manual sources: EHEDG guidelines; 3-A Sanitary Standards; Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene; food plant design and process control textbooks
What is the difference between a preliminary and a detailed energy audit?
B. Preliminary uses bills and a walk-through; detailed measures flows and builds balances
The walk-through audit uses existing data to find obvious savings and decide on further work; the detailed audit measures fuel, electricity, steam, air, refrigeration and water with meters and builds balances for major users. Both may cover all energy forms.
Further reading: See the manual sources: EHEDG guidelines; 3-A Sanitary Standards; Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene; food plant design and process control textbooks
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