SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 13 of 98

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which of the following is a non-perishable food?

(a)Pulses
(b)Curds
(c)Meat
(d)Milk

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Pulses are dried seeds. Take the water out of a food and the bacteria and moulds that spoil it have nothing to grow in.

That is what makes pulses non-perishable: sealed and kept dry at room temperature, they last for months without refrigeration.

Curd, meat and milk are all high in moisture and rich in protein, which is exactly what spoilage organisms need. Left out of the cold they turn within hours.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Curds — Curd is milk that is already fermenting, and the fermentation does not stop when you want it to. Outside a refrigerator it sours and spoils within a day.
(c)
Meat — Meat is the most perishable of the four — high moisture, high protein, no acid or sugar barrier — and it needs cold storage from the moment it is cut.
(d)
Milk — Milk is the standard classroom example of a perishable food. Pasteurisation and refrigeration extend its life by days, not by months.

Concept

Foods are grouped by how fast they spoil, and the grouping follows water.

Perishable — milk, curd, meat, fish, most fruit and vegetables. High moisture, gone in days without cold storage.

Semi-perishable — potatoes, onions, hard cheese. Weeks, in the right conditions.

Non-perishable — pulses, cereals, sugar, salt, spices. Dry, and stable for months or longer.

Preservation attacks the same variable from different sides: drying removes the water, salting and sugaring lock it away, and refrigeration slows the organisms that need it.

Three of the four options are dairy or flesh and one is a dry seed. Sorting them by water content answers the item without any food-science vocabulary at all.

Key facts

Perishable foods spoil within days without refrigeration, while non-perishable foods keep for months at room temperature.
Pulses, cereals, sugar and salt are standard examples of non-perishable foods.
Milk, curd, meat and fish are standard examples of perishable foods.
India is the world's largest producer and consumer of pulses.

Study next

Food preservation: drying, salting, canning, pasteurisation and irradiationMajor pulses grown in India and the cropping seasons they belong toNitrogen fixation by leguminous crops

Common traps

Reading non-perishable as 'not nutritious' and choosing by food value
Treating curd as preserved milk when fermentation only changes the way it spoils

SSC places everyday food-science items in General Awareness alongside current affairs, usually as a one-line classification where the options come from two obviously different families.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.