This blog is a comprehensive guide for students preparing for GATE- Food Technology through Life Science route.
This blog talks about
a. Exam Pattern
b. Analysis of previous 10 yrs papers and
c. Reference book
EXAM PATTERN for GATE – Food Technology
Questions Type: There are two types of questions:
- Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ). It may be direct question or matching type questions.
- Multiple Select Questions and /or Numerical Answer Type (NAT) Questions
Exam Duration: 3 hrs
Subjects:
1. Chemistry (Section P) is a mandatory section, consisting of 15 questions of total 25 marks. This section has a few numerical answer-type questions.
2. The paper will also have a General Aptitude section of total 15 marks.
3. Apart from Chemistry, the candidates will also have to choose two more sections from Q to U. Each of the sections from Q to U will consist of 20 questions carrying total 30 mark
XL Paper Sections | Code |
Chemistry (Compulsory) | P |
Biochemistry | Q |
Botany | R |
Microbiology | S |
Zoology | T |
Food Technology | U |
Total Marks
Subject | Total marks |
General Aptitude | 15 |
Chemistry | 25 |
Option 1 Subject | 30 |
Option 2 Subject | 30 |
TOTAL | 100 |
Marking Scheme
- MCQs – 1 mark for each correct answer; 1/3 mark will be deducted every wrong answer.
- MCQs – 2 marks for each correct answer; 2/3 mark will be deducted for every incorrect response.
- There is no negative marking for Numerical Answer Type (NAT) questions
ANALYSIS OF PREVIOUS YEARS PAPERS (2011 – 2021)
Before the preparation of the exam, it is very important to understand the question pattern, its depth, its coverage of topics within the syllabus. For this, one must go through previous years’ papers and look for the pattern. If there is a pattern, we study accordingly and if we don’t find a pattern, the exam preparation strategy totally changes.
We did an analysis of the last 10 yrs papers on food technology (life science) and here are some observations.
Disclaimer: Some of the topics / subjects can be overlap, so you should not take these data on an absolute basis but look for a common trend


How to interpret this table?
a. in 2014, total 19 marks were from numerical sections and out of it total 6 marks questions came only from the momentum transfer topic.
b. Out of all the topics, maximum marks questions came from the Thermal Operations topic
Food Engineering Topics | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Enzyme Kinetics | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||||||
Microbial Growth Kinetics | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
Milk and Milk Products Processing | 2 | ||||||||||
Mass, Elemental and Energy Balance | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | |||
Momentum Transfer | 2 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||||||
Heat Transfer | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | `2 | |||||
Mass Transfer | |||||||||||
Mechanical Operations | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | ||||||
Thermal Operations | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | |||
Mass Transfer Operations | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
Miscellaneous | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
Total Marks out of 35 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 19 | 11 | 9 | 15 | 10 | 13 | 4 |
Key Observations
1. Food Engineering has been a major contributor of questions in exams (except 2020)
2. Numerical type questions & Matching type questions form majority of question type
3. Heat Transfer, Mass Balance, Fluid Flow, Microbial growth & Enzyme kinetics are the top five topics in which numerical questions come.
4. In 2021, there was only one numerical problem.
REFERENCE BOOK for GATE – Food Technology

GATE [Life Science] – FOOD TECHNOLOGY & Allied Sciences is a comprehensive examination kit for those preparing for GATE Life Science exam. The book aims at providing a single window to prepare for GATE Life Science Exam.
This book covers all the subjects of Life Science syllabus with wider emphasis on Food Technology. It has Syllabus, Multiple Choice Questions, and Solved Previous Years Papers for Chemistry, Biochemistry, Botany, Microbiology, Zoology & Food Technology.
In Food Technology section, the book covers detail analysis of previous years questions, about 350 solved numerical aptitude questions, multiple choice questions and short notes to revise entire syllabus.

SALIENT FEATURE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanjeev Kumar Sharma
Author: Objective Food Science; Science of Cocoa Processing
Co-author: Objective Food Science & Safety Standards
Founder: www.foodtechpathshala.com
M Sc [Food Tech], CFTRI, Mysore
B Tech [Food Sc], VNMKV, Parbhani
Lohith Kumar D H
Research Scholar, IIT Roorkee
B Tech [Food Sc], UAS Bangalore
M Tech [Food Process Engineering], NIT Rourkela
Dr Ashwani Sharma
Faculty, Department of Biotechnology,
R V College of Engineering, Bengaluru
PhD [Biotech], CFTRI Mysore
M Sc [Botany], Kanpur University