ICAR AIEEA-PG / PGS — Code 18 Food Science Technology · India · ICAR through the National Testing Agency
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersHow a food laboratory measures what is in a food: sampling, proximate analysis, official methods, and the instruments — spectroscopy, chromatography, mass spectrometry and electrophoresis — that a food analyst runs. It is the core of the food analyst qualification in countries that license analysts.
In the exams: ICAR AIEEA-PG Code 18 Unit I (modern analytical techniques in food analysis); ICAR AICE 35.b Unit 6 (research techniques); core of food analyst examinations
ICAR AIEEA-PG / PGS — Code 18 Food Science Technology
Unit I names modern analytical techniques in food analysis. MCQs test principles and applications: Beer–Lambert law, which detector for which analyte, Kjeldahl stages and factors, Gerber versus Mojonnier, crude versus dietary fibre, SDS-PAGE separation basis, sandwich versus competitive ELISA.
How our questions for ICAR AIEEA-PG / PGS spread across the units of Food Analysis: Proximate, Chemical & Instrumental Methods. Difficulty: 17 easy, 42 medium, 6 hard.
| Protein: Kjeldahl and Dumas methods | 7 | |
| Chromatography: TLC, GC and HPLC | 6 | |
| Physical tests: pH, titratable acidity, refractometry and colour | 6 | |
| Sampling and sample preparation | 5 | |
| Moisture and total solids | 5 | |
| Ash and mineral analysis | 5 | |
| Fat: Soxhlet, Mojonnier and Gerber methods | 5 | |
| Carbohydrates, sugars and dietary fibre | 5 | |
| UV-visible, fluorescence and infrared spectroscopy | 5 | |
| Official methods and method compendia: AOAC, ISO and national manuals | 4 | |
| Vitamin analysis | 4 | |
| Electrophoresis and immunoassays: SDS-PAGE and ELISA | 4 | |
| Atomic absorption and ICP spectroscopy | 3 | |
| Mass spectrometry and hyphenated techniques | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Coning and quartering is used to
A. reduce a granular sample representatively
The heaped sample is flattened, divided into quarters and opposite quarters kept, repeating until the size is suitable.
Further reading: Nielsen (ed.), Food Analysis
Karl Fischer titration is preferred for low-moisture products because it
C. measures water specifically
The iodine–sulphur dioxide reaction is specific to water; oven methods count all volatiles.
Further reading: Nielsen (ed.), Food Analysis
Oven moisture methods are described as empirical because they
D. measure everything lost under the stated conditions
Volatile compounds and decomposition losses count; conditions define the result.
Further reading: Nielsen (ed.), Food Analysis
A sample has 13.0 % moisture. Its total solids content is
D. 87.0 %
Total solids = 100 − moisture = 87.0 %.
Further reading: Nielsen (ed.), Food Analysis
Before HPLC of vitamins A and E in fatty foods, samples are usually
A. saponified
Alkaline saponification removes triglycerides and releases the vitamins for extraction.
Further reading: Nielsen (ed.), Food Analysis
Near-infrared analysers for grain protein rely on
C. multivariate calibration against reference methods
NIR bands overlap, so chemometric models (e.g. PLS) are built from samples analysed by Kjeldahl or Dumas.
Further reading: Nielsen (ed.), Food Analysis
In UV-visible spectrophotometers, the lamp used for the ultraviolet region is usually a
D. deuterium lamp
Deuterium for UV, tungsten-halogen for visible; hollow-cathode lamps are for AAS.
Further reading: Skoog, Holler and Crouch, Principles of Instrumental Analysis
In reversed-phase HPLC on a C18 column with water–methanol, the compounds that elute first are
A. the most polar
Polar compounds interact weakly with the non-polar stationary phase and elute early.
Further reading: Skoog, Holler and Crouch, Principles of Instrumental Analysis
A resolution of at least 1.5 between two peaks indicates
B. baseline separation
Rs ≥ 1.5 means the peaks are separated to baseline.
Further reading: Skoog, Holler and Crouch, Principles of Instrumental Analysis
Sandwich ELISA is suited to food allergens because allergenic proteins
B. have at least two antibody-binding sites
Capture and detection antibodies bind different epitopes of the large protein.
Further reading: Nielsen (ed.), Food Analysis
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