Nutrition, Food Science and Technology

About this unit

This unit applies the science of food and nutrition to health, industry and the community. It covers diet therapy in illness, the nutrition problems of India and the programmes that tackle them, how food is processed and preserved, and how food quality and safety are ensured from farm to plate.

Key ideas

• Therapeutic diets are modifications of the normal diet to suit a disease or condition.
• India faces a double burden of malnutrition: undernutrition and micronutrient deficiency alongside overweight and obesity.
• Programmes such as ICDS and school meals aim to improve nutrition of vulnerable groups.
• Food is preserved by controlling microbes and enzymes through heat, cold, drying, preservatives and other methods.
• Food safety depends on standards, hygiene, prevention of adulteration and systems such as HACCP.

How to prepare

• Tabulate diseases with their diet modifications and deficiencies with their signs.
• Learn preservation methods with their principle and one example each.
• Memorise the seven HACCP principles, the main food standards and marks, and common adulterants with their tests.