Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am an 8th grade student currently conducting the Burning Calories: How Much Energy is Stored in Different Types of Food experiment. I am having difficulty getting the food item to catch fire. I am trying to light white bread, turkey, cheese, and lettuce and none of them are catching fire. The food just singes around the edges. Can anyone help me with any suggestions or explain why this is happening? Thank you very much!

Hello Josh K,

The foods you are trying to burn have a lot of water in them. For example, lettuce is mostly water.

Before you try to burn these foods, you need to get rid of the water. Try heating the food in a warm oven before trying to burn it. Use a low oven temperature so that the food will not burn in the oven! Try around 250 degrees Fahrenheit for varying lengths of time. The lettuce will be very thin and crisp when it is completely dry. For other foods such as nuts, they may not look very different after heating. Dryness for those foods could be judged by determining when the food will no longer lose weight if it is heated longer.

Good luck. WW