Hi!
I want to do my science fair project on if gluten-free food is always gluten-free and cross contamination. I was wondering if my high school lab would have any chemicals that would help me detect gluten? Or are their any machines?
Thank you!
Gluten-Free Science Fair Project
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6604491e19b94a778d57d5362bd8ab47
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SciB
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Re: Gluten-Free Science Fair Project
Hi,
That's an interesting idea, but measuring gluten concentration is not possible, as far as I know without some expensive equipment and chemicals. In people, there is a test for gluten allergy but it would not be permissible for high school students to perform.
If I understand your idea, you want to check a variety of foods that claim to be gluten free to see if they really are. So, you may be needing to measure fairly low amounts of gluten in a food that has lots of other ingredients and that makes the analysis really difficult. There's no chemical that I know of that will react with gluten but not with anything else in the food. Gluten is a type of protein and there are ways to identify proteins specifically, but again they require expensive equipment and reagents.
Maybe one of the other experts can come up with an idea to help you on this project. I really can't see any simple and accurate way to do what you want to do.
Do some more reading online and see if there's anything that is very sensitive to gluten, whether plant or animal, that you could use as an indicator. If you look hard enough, you just may find something that nobody else has thought of--and that would be really exciting!
Good luck!
Sybee
That's an interesting idea, but measuring gluten concentration is not possible, as far as I know without some expensive equipment and chemicals. In people, there is a test for gluten allergy but it would not be permissible for high school students to perform.
If I understand your idea, you want to check a variety of foods that claim to be gluten free to see if they really are. So, you may be needing to measure fairly low amounts of gluten in a food that has lots of other ingredients and that makes the analysis really difficult. There's no chemical that I know of that will react with gluten but not with anything else in the food. Gluten is a type of protein and there are ways to identify proteins specifically, but again they require expensive equipment and reagents.
Maybe one of the other experts can come up with an idea to help you on this project. I really can't see any simple and accurate way to do what you want to do.
Do some more reading online and see if there's anything that is very sensitive to gluten, whether plant or animal, that you could use as an indicator. If you look hard enough, you just may find something that nobody else has thought of--and that would be really exciting!
Good luck!
Sybee
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6604491e19b94a778d57d5362bd8ab47
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Where can I find certain enzymes?
Am I able to access Kumamolisin-As and Dipeptidyl Peptiase 6 anywhere?
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SciB
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- Posts: 2068
- Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 7:00 am
- Occupation: Retired molecular biologist, university researcher and teacher
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- Project Due Date: n/a
- Project Status: Not applicable
Re: Gluten-Free Science Fair Project
Hi,
I'm not sure where you could buy those compounds, but I would bet they are quite expensive and may require certain equipment to use that your school lab does not have. Are you looking for a way to measure gluten concentration? You may just have to depend on nutrient or supplement labels for that information.
Foods that say 'gluten-free' are supposed to not have any gluten proteins, but I wonder what their definition of 'free' is. Sometimes it simply means up to a few percent but no more. It depends on what the labeling laws say about gluten.
Let me know if you need more help.
Sybee
I'm not sure where you could buy those compounds, but I would bet they are quite expensive and may require certain equipment to use that your school lab does not have. Are you looking for a way to measure gluten concentration? You may just have to depend on nutrient or supplement labels for that information.
Foods that say 'gluten-free' are supposed to not have any gluten proteins, but I wonder what their definition of 'free' is. Sometimes it simply means up to a few percent but no more. It depends on what the labeling laws say about gluten.
Let me know if you need more help.
Sybee