These are ATARMAxxing’s course-guide summaries. Review all required areas, including school assessments, practical work, performances or folios where applicable. Follow your course’s option rules.
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Topic 1 — Principles of nutrition, physiology and health
The largest and most calculation-heavy topic. It opens with energy: the kJ/g values for each macronutrient and alcohol, percentage energy compared against the AMDR, and the BMR/TEF/EEE/energy-balance chain (BMR male = kg × 1.0 × 24 × 4.2, female = kg × 0.9 × 24 × 4.2; TEF = 10% of daily energy intake; EEE = BMR + TEF + physical activity). It then covers the nutrient reference values (RDI, EAR, AI, UL, EER) and applies them to case-study intakes, the full digestive system from mouth to absorption (enzymes, mastication, peristalsis, emulsification, villi absorption of monosaccharides, amino acids, fatty acids and glycerol), the gut microbiome (vitamin K and short-chain fatty acid synthesis, prebiotics and probiotics, coeliac disease and lactose intolerance), and each macronutrient and micronutrient group in turn — proteins and biological value, lipids and cholesterol/CVD risk, carbohydrates and blood glucose, fibre, hydration, vitamins and minerals (bioavailability, deficiencies, nutrient interactions) — before closing on over- and undernutrition disorders and nutrition needs across the life cycle.
Topic 2 — Health promotion and emerging trends
This topic covers how food is regulated, assessed and communicated. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) sets additive rules and mandatory fortification (folate, thiamine and iodine in bread-making flour, vitamin D in some foods); food-borne illness and preservation techniques (freezing, canning, pasteurisation) and packaging materials follow. Labelling covers the 12 mandatory requirements and comparing nutrition information panels per 100 g. Diagnostic tools (BMI and its limitations against waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, weight-for-height tables, blood analysis) sit alongside the Australian Dietary Guidelines, the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Guide to Healthy Eating and social marketing campaigns, and the topic closes on sensory, psychological, social and marketing influences on food choice.
Topic 3 — Sustainable food systems
The environmental and future-food topic. It covers production-method impacts (monoculture, soil quality, fertilisers and pesticides, livestock antibiotics, organic farming, crop rotation, biodiversity), aquaculture and commercial fishing, food production's contribution to global warming, food miles and water availability, packaging materials and food waste, and closes on research and development — vertical and digital farming, GMOs, entomophagy, algae, lab-grown meat and 3D-printed food — assessed against nutrition, sustainability and food security.
Science inquiry skills and science as a human endeavour
Examined inside every question rather than as its own section, worth roughly 10–20 marks per paper. Covers designing an investigation from a hypothesis or inquiry question (independent and dependent variables, factors held constant and why, factors that cannot be controlled, ethical and safety considerations), representing primary and secondary data in SI units, tables and graphs, analysing trends and calculating means, and distinguishing random from systematic error and reliability from validity from accuracy. The four SHE key concepts — Communication and Collaboration, Development, Influence, and Application and Limitation — are applied to a new technology or research finding in most papers, most often Influence.
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These links come from this subject’s existing official-paper archive. A listed year is the document’s year, not a claim that it matches the 2026 course. Written papers may cover only part of your assessment; use the official requirements for practical, performance and folio components.