Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

For a science project, I am using Chromatography to compare the food coloring (E133) with the blue coloring in M&M's and Smarties. At the moment I have done the actual chromatography for the E133 dye as well as the blue dye in the M&M's. I was wondering how you would compare the two chromatography papers, to find out whether the m&m does contain the E133 dye.
Thanks

Hi Megan,

I think you are doing a variation of this project from the Science Buddies website:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... background

If you have run food colors with known dyes with paper chromatography under identical conditions and want to know if the candies contain the same dye, then you should calculate the Rf values are described in the background information tab of the project guide.

If the dye is the same color and has the same Rf value, then you can say that you have probably identified the dye. If the dye is the same color and has a different Rf value, then you cannot conclude that you have identified the specific dye.

With either result, your science project will be a success if you can explain the science behind your project and make conclusions that match your results.

Please post again in this topic if you have more questions.


Donna Hardy

Thank you so much Donna! Appreciate the feedback. I will calculate the Rf values