Food Studies: should I choose it?

Food around the world

Food in Australia

Australia’s food systems

Food in the home

Unit 3, Area of Study 1: The science of food

This area of study is the physiological half of Unit 3. It opens with appetite and satiety, how both are conditioned, and the sensory appreciation of food through taste, smell, texture and appearance. Digestion is then traced through the gastrointestinal tract and its accessory organs, following carbohydrates including dietary fibre, fats and proteins from mouth to absorption and on to how the body uses them. Gut microbiota is treated as a topic in its own right, including how diet shapes it and how it relates to physical and mental health. From there the study turns to the evidence-based development of the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, dietary requirements that vary with age, sex, pregnancy, lactation and activity level, and the physiology, causes, symptoms and management of food allergies and intolerances, including lactose, gluten and FODMAP.

Unit 3, Area of Study 2: Food choices, health and wellbeing

Here the focus shifts from the body to the person and the society around them. It covers patterns, trends and changes in Australian food purchasing and consumption, then the social factors that shape access and choice — education, income, location, accommodation, available time and cultural norms. The social and emotional roles of food follow: identity, connectedness and celebration, and food's relationship with mental health. Media is examined closely, both as a source of food information and beliefs and as a driver of emotional and psychological responses including body image concerns, restrictive dieting and comfort eating. The area also examines how food systems relate to overconsumption and sedentary behaviour, the political influences of manufacturing, advertising, consumer activism and food sovereignty, and the behavioural principles of exposure, modelling and repetition that shape children's diets.

Unit 4, Area of Study 1: Navigating food information

This area of study teaches you to interrogate a food claim rather than believe it. It starts with the contexts in which people gain food knowledge and skills, then sets out evidence-based research principles and applies them to contemporary food fads, trends and diets. The core tool is a set of criteria for assessing the validity of food information — the source and its expertise, the purpose behind the message, the context it appears in, how evidence is presented and what language is used to persuade. A parallel set of criteria applies to weight-loss and nutrient-supplement claims, weighing commercial gain, ethics and actual effectiveness. Regulation is studied alongside this: the food standards governing nutrition content claims and health claims on labels and in advertising, and how the dietary guidelines translate into everyday habits and weight management.

Unit 4, Area of Study 2: Environment and ethics

The largest area of study on the paper, and the one with the most terminology to keep straight. It begins with feeding a rising world population: food insecurity, the innovations and technologies proposed as answers, and equity of access. Three related concepts are then distinguished and applied — food security, food sovereignty and food citizenship. Sociocultural and ethical concerns of Australian consumers follow, and how those concerns change what people buy. The environmental half covers primary production in detail, including fertilisers, pesticides, water use, choice of crop or animal, biosecurity, climate change and biodiversity loss, and then traces impact along the rest of the chain through processing, manufacturing, retail, packaging, transport, marketing and disposal, recycling or repurposing, closing on food citizenship for human and planetary health.

Unit 1, Area of Study 1: Food around the world

Unit 1 begins globally. This area of study examines the factors behind the emergence of global food systems, products and practices, and traces the historical development of food systems, cultures and cuisines in one selected region other than Australia. It works back to early agricultural food systems, the cultivation of plants and domestication of animals, and compares those systems with hunter-gatherer ways of obtaining food, including what each demanded in labour, land and knowledge. The global spread of food production is then followed through trade in major commodities such as chocolate, coffee, grains, spices, sugar and tea, and the movement of people and plants that carried them. The area closes on the effects of industrialisation, technology and globalisation on what food is available, to whom, and with what consequences for health.

Unit 1, Area of Study 2: Food in Australia

This area of study covers the Australian food story from before European settlement to the present. It begins with food production and consumption among Victoria's First Peoples, including the knowledge, seasonality and social practices involved, then turns to the challenges early non-indigenous settlers faced establishing a food supply in unfamiliar conditions. The development of Australian food production, processing and manufacturing industries follows, and then migration's influence on Australian tastes, ingredients and eating habits, studied in part through the characteristics of one selected cuisine of influence. The area closes on contemporary Australia: current trends, food subcultures, the rise of native and local ingredients, and the long-running debate about whether a distinctive Australian cuisine actually exists.

Unit 2, Area of Study 1: Australia's food systems

This area of study maps the Australian food system end to end. It identifies the components and activities that make it up, then examines environmental and economic sustainability trends within it and how those affect food security and sovereignty. Primary production is studied through agriculture and horticulture and the major growing regions that supply the country, followed by the processing, manufacturing, retail and food service sectors and what each contributes and consumes. Influences on supply are examined from the other direction too: consumer demand, media attention, activism and food citizenship. The area also covers new product development through design briefs, with sensory, dietary and nutritional analysis of the result, and closes on governance — the food standards system, labelling requirements and food safety programs.

Unit 2, Area of Study 2: Food in the home

The domestic counterpart to the systems area of study. It compares commercial food production with domestic and small-scale production, then examines the planning, management and decision-making involved in feeding a household, weighing time, money, health and sustainability against each other. Adapting recipes is treated in practical detail, for allergies and intolerances and for cultural and ethical requirements. The area covers the benefits of individual food skills, the principles of heat transfer and the cooking techniques that rely on them, and the functional properties of the major components of food — how fats, proteins, starch and sugar behave when heated, mixed or combined, including the Maillard reaction, gelatinisation and emulsification. It closes on the pathways that lead from domestic cooking into entrepreneurial and commercial food settings.