Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Is there a simple way to measure the amount of lipids in food?

These sites will give you an overview of methods to test for biological compounds in foods.

http://www.lipidlibrary.co.uk/mainlink.html

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu:8050/foodrheol ... istry.html

Matt Mulanax

Hi Kay,

In the second website, which Matt listed, there is an experiment that describes how to measure the amount of lipids in foods. There are many types of lipids, but all are non-polar, containing mostly carbon and hydrogen atoms. They can be extracted from samples using organic solvents, such as acetone. Other biomolecules such as carbohydrates, proteins, and nucleic acids are more hydrophilic because they contain more oxygen atoms and these molecules will not dissolve in acetone. You can measure the amount of lipid in the sample by comparing the weight of the sample before and after acetone extraction.

This seems to be a fairly simple experiment, and would give quantitative results that are important for a science fair project. You would need a very accurate balance to obtain best results.

Let us know if you have any other questions about your project.


Donna Hardy

Hi there,

Here are a couple more websites you might want to check out:

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~mcclemen/581Lipids.html

http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEPC ... t_two.html

The second one describes an experiment that may be helpful to you.

Hope this helps!

Mary

Thanks for your help!