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HSC · HSC Year 12 · official past papers

Food Technology — past papers by topic

Every official NESA exam and examiner report we index, organised by topic and subtopic and labelled with the study design it was written under. Open the official paper, work the question in your own workspace, or bring a tutor into it live.

Papers and examiner reports open on the official NESA website — they stay official and up to date. Question descriptions below are our own; we never republish exam content. Prefer to be walked through it? Book a tutor →

Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013) · 2015–2025

Official papers & examiner reports, year by year

YearStudy designOfficial paper(s)Examiner report
2025Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam ↗Report ↗
2024Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam ↗Report ↗
2023Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam ↗Report ↗
2022Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam ↗Report ↗
2021Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam ↗Report ↗
2020Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam ↗Report ↗
2019Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam ↗—
2018Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam ↗Report ↗
2017Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam ↗Report ↗
2016Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam ↗Report ↗

All URLs verified against official educationstandards.nsw.edu.au / nsw.gov.au pages (NESA now serves HSC exam-paper content under www.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/nesa/... after a 301 redirect from the older educationstandards.nsw.edu.au paths — both are official NESA/NSW Government hosts). Years covered: 2016-2025 (10 years), each with a confirmed 'Exam' PDF and 'marking guidelines' PDF (NESA's naming — functions as the equivalent of a marking guide; there is no separate 'examination report' PDF for this subject in this window, only in-page 'marking feedback' HTML sections on each year's exam-pack page). Two years (2025, 2019) were fully read as PDFs via the Read tool (not just WebFetch-summarised) confirming exact section structure (Section I MCQ 20 marks Q1-20, Section II short answer 50 marks Q21-26, Section III extended response 15 marks Q27, Section IV essay 15 marks Q28, total 100 marks) and all 28 questions' real content/marks, from which the 26 questions[] entries were built as original one-line descriptions — no exam wording was copied. Syllabus: only one syllabus era applies across this whole window — the Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (BOS/NESA), originally accredited c.2000, amended September 2009 (BOS 42/09), with minor amendments August 2013; NESA has not issued a newer Stage 6 syllabus for this subject as of 2026, so sdEras[] has a single entry. This is distinct from the separate junior Food Technology 7-10 Syllabus (2019), which does not apply to HSC-level exams and was excluded. Topics[] and all subtopic wording were extracted directly from the official syllabus DOCX (section 9: 'Content: Food Technology Stage 6 HSC Course', subsections 9.1-9.4), not paraphrased from a webpage summary. Gaps: years before 2016 were not pulled (task asked for ~10 most recent years, satisfied by 2016-2025); reportUrl is blank only for 2019 since a marking-guidelines URL was already captured but I did not re-derive a duplicate report link for that one entry (the marking guidelines URL is noted in its 'notes' field instead) — treat marking guidelines as the closest equivalent to reportUrl throughout, since NESA does not publish a distinct examiner's report PDF for this subject.

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The Australian Food Industry · 7 mapped questions

Sectors of the Australian food industry (agriculture and fisheries, food processing/manufacturing, food service and catering, food retail)

Question-level mapping for this subtopic is being verified — use the year table above; every official paper is one click away.

Emerging technologies in food production, manufacturing and packaging (biotechnology/GM foods, ecologically sustainable production e.g. organic farming)

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Aspects of the Australian food industry — levels of operation and mechanisation (household, small business, large companies, multinationals), research and development, quality assurance, consumer influences (value-added foods)

Question-level mapping for this subtopic is being verified — use the year table above; every official paper is one click away.

Impact of the AFI on environment (waste management, packaging, production techniques, transportation), economy (profit, employment) and society (lifestyle changes, careers, working conditions, gender issues)

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Policy and legislation — advisory groups, government policy and legislation (labelling requirements) affecting the Australian food industry

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Sectors of the Australian food industry

Policy and legislation

Aspects of the Australian food industry

Food Manufacture · 7 mapped questions

Production and processing of food — quality/quantity control of raw materials, role of food additives, equipment characteristics, production systems (small scale, large scale, manual, automated, computerised)

Question-level mapping for this subtopic is being verified — use the year table above; every official paper is one click away.

Quality management in industrial practice — HACCP, work health and safety, hygiene, critical control points, food safety hazards and risks

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Preservation — reasons for preserving food, causes of deterioration/spoilage (environmental, enzymatic, microbial), preservation principles (temperature control, moisture restriction, exclusion of air, pH), preservation processes (canning, drying, pasteurising, freezing, fermenting)

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Packaging, storage and distribution — functions and types of packaging materials, current developments (active packaging, modified atmosphere packaging, sous vide), storage conditions and distribution systems

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Production and processing of food

Packaging, storage and distribution

Preservation

Food Product Development · 5 mapped questions

Factors impacting food product development — external/macro-environment (economic, political, ecological, technological) and internal/micro-environment (personnel expertise, production facilities, financial position, company image); SWOT analysis

Question-level mapping for this subtopic is being verified — use the year table above; every official paper is one click away.

Reasons for and types of food product development — market/consumer/societal/technological/profitability drivers; line extensions, me-toos, new-to-world products

Question-level mapping for this subtopic is being verified — use the year table above; every official paper is one click away.

Steps in food product development — design brief, idea generation and screening, market research, product specifications, feasibility study, production process development, prototype development and testing (sensory evaluation, consumer testing, packaging tests, storage trials)

Question-level mapping for this subtopic is being verified — use the year table above; every official paper is one click away.

Marketing plans — product planning, price structure, place and distribution, promotional program (four Ps)

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Marketing plans

Steps in food product development

Factors which impact on food product development

Reasons for and types of food product development

  • 2019Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam Q215 marksShort answer — reasons for developing a new food product, plus matching product-development types to food examples in a table.Official paper ↗Work through it with a tutor →
Contemporary Nutrition Issues · 7 mapped questions

Diet and health in Australia — physical effects and economic costs of malnutrition (under- and over-nutrition) and diet-related disorders, nutritional considerations for specific groups, role of individuals/community groups/food industry/government/private agencies in promoting health

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Nutritionally modified foods — functional foods and fortified foods meeting consumer demand

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Active non-nutrients and supplements — phytochemicals, probiotics, fibre; role of dietary supplements in a balanced diet

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Influences on nutritional status — diet's role in obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, food sensitivity/intolerance/allergy; lifestyle, cultural and social practices; media and ethical issues in food advertising

Question-level mapping for this subtopic is being verified — use the year table above; every official paper is one click away.

Diet and health in Australia

  • 2025Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam Q2311 marksExtended response on a named nutritionally-at-risk group — a health-promotion strategy, justified modifications to a supplied breakfast meal plan, and how the economic environment affects new product development.Official paper ↗Examiner report ↗Work through it with a tutor →
  • 2019Food Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (amended 2009, updated 2013)Exam Q238 marksResponse outlining nutritional considerations for a named group and a strategy to improve that group's health outcomes.Official paper ↗Work through it with a tutor →

Influences on nutritional status

Nutritionally modified foods

Active non-nutrients and supplements

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