GCSE Food and Nutrition
Learners type objective, short and extended answers in an on-screen examination worth 40%, then complete two written assessments: a food science investigation built around a hypothesis, and a researched, planned and evaluated cooking task, both needing analysis, justification and precise sensory description. Numeracy is applied throughout: weighing and measuring, key temperatures, scaling and adapting recipe quantities, calculating energy and nutritional values, timing a plan of work, and presenting results in tables and charts. The single biggest thing Key Stage 3 should build is the fair-test habit: change one variable, measure and record the results in a table or chart, and write a conclusion that uses the evidence.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Level 1 and Level 2
- First taught
- September 2025
- Amount of literacy work
- High
- Amount of numeracy work
- Medium
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this qualification is assessed
- Unit 1: Principles of Food and Nutrition: Digital examination 1 hour 30 minutes, 40%, 80 marks
- Unit 2: Food Investigation: Non-examination assessment, 8 hours, 20%, 40 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
- Unit 3: Food and Nutrition in Action: Non-examination assessment, 12 hours, 40%, 80 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
Skills that use Proofreading, editing and improving
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Planning an investigation around a hypothesis
In Unit 2 learners cook a control, research the ingredients, develop a hypothesis and plan tasks to prove or disprove it, setting out a research question, variables, controls and equipment.
Literacy: Planning and organising for different purposes, audiences and context, Proofreading, editing and improving
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils write a simple prediction before a practical, such as 'bread made with more yeast will rise higher', and check it afterwards.
- Year 8
- Pupils plan a fair test on thickening a sauce with different amounts of cornflour, writing the research question, hypothesis, the variable they change and two controls.
- Year 9
- Pupils draft a full investigation plan for a raising agent experiment, then redraft it after peer feedback so that another group could follow it exactly.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit 2, 2.2.1 and 2.2.2, page 20; Arrangements for non-examination assessment, page 28
“a hypothesis is developed. The remaining tasks are centred around proving or disproving the hypothesis.”
Progression step 3
I can use and adapt different structures within my writing, e.g. reporting an event, investigation or experiment.
I can explore different ways to plan, draft and present my work appropriately.
I can reflect on, edit and redraft to improve the quality of my expression, and use a range of strategies to ensure greater clarity.
Progression step 4
I can select and use appropriate strategies to plan and develop my writing for different purposes and audiences.
I can use paragraphs and sections to give coherence to longer pieces of writing.
I can improve writing through independent review and redrafting.
Progression step 5
I can select and use appropriate strategies to plan and develop my writing for a challenging range of different purposes and audiences.
I can organise writing in an appropriate form, ensuring content is detailed within and between paragraphs or sections, developing and sustaining ideas coherently.
I can improve the content, structure and accuracy of my writing through critical reflection, review and editing, responding constructively to feedback.
Good to know
- Unit 1 is typed on screen, not handwritten: "Digital examination: 1 hour 30 minutes" (Summary of assessment, page 5) and "Assessment type: Digital Examination" (Unit 1, page 11).
- The specification does not mention marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar, and states no calculator rule for the examination: "The Assessment Pack will include all detailed information relating to assessment." (Assessment, page 27).
- AO3, analyse and evaluate, is 20% of the qualification, with 10% in the Unit 1 examination, 5% in Unit 2 and 5% in Unit 3 (Assessment objectives, page 27).
- Nutritional calculation carries different weight by unit: Unit 1 learners "should know how to calculate energy and nutritional values in food" (1.2.3, page 13), but in Unit 3 learners need only be aware of "how to calculate the nutritional value in a food outcome" (3.3.3, page 24).
- Both written assessments are time limited: Unit 2 "will take 8 hours to complete" and Unit 3 "will take 12 hours to complete", and each "could be completed in several sittings" (Arrangements for non-examination assessment, page 28). No word limits are stated.
- Costing and budgeting are not named in the specification. Money appears only through "socio-economic influences" on food choice (1.3.3, page 14; 3.1.1, page 22).
- Charts and star diagrams are listed with "such as", which the specification says "indicates that the specified content is for guidance only" (How to read the amplification, page 11).
Links with other qualifications
Food investigations use the same fair-test, variables and results-table skills as The Sciences, and recipe scaling and percentage of reference intake overlap with Mathematics and Numeracy.
Source: WJEC GCSE Food and Nutrition specification, Version 2, February 2025, teaching from 2025, for award from 2027 (© WJEC CBAC Ltd. 2024).