Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi!

I'm a junior in high school, and I am currently taking a Science Research class, where we are to conduct a sciene project. I want to do a project that has to do with food chemistry, but I can't seem to find many ideas on the net.

Any suggestions?
Thanks!

Oh-- some extra information.

I was interested in measuring antioxidant levels in food. I looked around the net, but I couldn't find a specific procedure or anything, so I was wondering if it might be too complicated a subject.

Any other types of food related topics are more than welcome though!

Let me check with a friend of my whose work deals with food science and food chemistry. After I talk to her, I will post back with information about what she suggests.

thanks! that sounds great!

A web search for "antioxidant assay" will provide info on many kits that can be used to measure concentrations. However, glancing over the results, they seem expensive and require some specialized laboratory equipment to measure absorbance at particular wavelengths of light. Maybe Terik's friend will know a more cheap and simple procedure.

I'm not a food scientist, but I think ChrisG may be right about the assays being too difficult to do without access to specialized equipment. Is there a university or a college near your home, and if so would they perhaps have some food scientists you could speak to?

If this project does prove to be too difficult, what other things would you be interested in doing? Perhaps we could help you with something else.

Baking and cooking involves a lot of hidden but fairly simple chemistry. My oldest daughter substituted baking soda for baking power in a corn bread recipe. An unpleasant lye soap like biproduct occurred that she will be forced to remember for the rest of her life.

There are all sorts of oxidation and reduction reactions in making various sauces. Controlling yeast reactions in making various breads are fairly complex but involve some simple chemistry.

You don't have to go into the more complex nutrition chemistry to find chemistry in cooking.

Sorry it has taken so long, but here is the gist of the reply from my food scientist friend.

"Food science is VERY broad; it involves chemistry, physics, biology, geology, mathematics, and more. You need to decide what part of food science you are interested in. The chemistry of baking is, for example, really quite complex. A close look at how popcorn pops, reveals published peer-reviewed literature on the process. A good site for ideas is foodnavigator.com. Take a look around the Food Navigator site, and see if you find anything that peaks you interest."

You can also look at the Science Buddies project ideas in Chemistry to jump-start your own thinking:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... ?from=Home

Good luck!

Heather