Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi. I am interested in the effectiveness of packaging for things like fruit or vegetables. I would like to test if the different materials change the amount of protection provided to nutrients like antioxidants or vitamins and minerals. How could I test this most accurately?

Hi,

This is a great project idea! The primary concern in food packaging is to reduce the oxidation of the food item. There are two project ideas on the Science Buddies website that you could adapt for this project. The first is based on browning of apples and the second is a quantitative assay for vitamin C:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p001.shtml

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p044.shtml

Other vitamins and minerals are more stable, so it would be more difficult to find an assay to measure that would allow you to measure the effect of packaging. Depending on the food item that you choose for your testing, you might want to measure moisture content or change in color.

There are other aspects of food packaging that you could investigate as well, however you should plan to do just one carefully controlled experiment for your science project.

http://www.dow.com/packaging/pdfs/768-23201.pdf

Please post again if you have more questions.

Donna Hardy