Ingredients and Food Commodities
Ingredients and Food Commodities tests selection, storage, measurement and safe substitution across cereals, pulses, vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs, meat, fats, sugar and spices.
Core rules
- Cereals and pulses: store airtight, cool and dry; check for damp, mould and insects. Soak pulses to shorten cooking and improve digestibility.
- Vegetables and fruit: choose firm, seasonal, unbruised items; wash before cutting; refrigerate perishables; keep onions and potatoes separately because together they sprout faster.
- Milk, eggs, meat: keep the cold chain; check dates; store raw meat below cooked food; cook eggs until both white and yolk are set unless a recipe specifies otherwise.
- Fats and oils: buy small quantities, store away from light and heat, reject rancid or foaming oil.
- Sugar, salt and spices: keep dry and labelled; allergens such as milk, egg, wheat, soy, peanut and shellfish must be declared.
- Measurement and yield: weigh for accuracy; remember trimming, soaking and cooking change weight.
Worked example
You need 100 g grated coconut and have dry desiccated coconut. Reasoning: desiccated coconut is drier and sweeter, so soak it in warm milk for 10 minutes, use about 80–90 g, and reduce added liquid. Taste before serving.
Traps
Using rancid oil; storing potatoes and onions together; washing berries and leaving them wet; measuring by handful; assuming 1 cup of every ingredient weighs the same; ignoring allergen labels.