Question:
Does 100% fruit juice have more vitamin C than fruit juice with Artificial ingredients?
Abstract:
My family doesn’t drink very much soda, so juice is most commonly in our house. If you have ever gone down the juice aisle of a super market you would notice a sea of fruit juices each promising; all natural fruit juice, 100% this and 100% that, and almost all of them promising to have the most vitamin C. So this year I decided to test fruit juices. I am going to test 100% all natural fruit juices, juices with artificial ingredients, and juices from concentrate, to see which ones actually contain the most vitamin C.
To do this project I purchased: 3 test tube racks each containing 6 test tubes, 12 generic eyedroppers, 1 10ml eye dropper, 3 glass measuring pipettes, corn starch, and iodine.
For this project I chose to test; V8 Fusion, Langers Apple/cranberry, Signature 100% apple juice, Tropicana 100% orange juice, Sunny D, Freshly squeezed orange, Capri Sun juice box, Wawa blue raspberry drink, Dasani all natural berry water, Kedem grape juice, Welch’s grape juice from concentrate, Signature orange juice from concentrate, Kool-Aid, and Tang.
Before any testing I made my Iodine solution (page 3 of my note book), and labeled each test tube with the juice to be added to it.
Using the 10ml eyedropper I first added 5ml of Iodine solution to all 18 test tubes I then used the 12 generic eyedroppers, and using a clean one for each juice I added 10 drops of each juice to the test tube with the juices name on it, swirled it around in the test tube and put the top on the test tube and inserted it into the test tube rack.
After all the test tubes were in the racks, I lined up the test tube racks and inserted a white piece of paper behind the test tubes and arranged them darkest to lightest in color. (darkest color meaning the least vitamin C to the lightest color having the most vitamin C).
Although the orange juice’s and freshly squeezed orange tested well, I was surprised to find the Langer’s apple juice contained the most vitamin C.
I believe my testing method was accurate because I used the same Iodine solution I made for each test. I used a clean eyedropper for each juice tested so there was no contamination from each juice, which I believe was the most critical part of testing. I repeated my testing three times the same way and received the same results.
I hope this project helps parents and others to choose the proper juice for their vitamin C needs.
Problem:
The reason for this project is to see which fruit juice actually has the most vitamin C. Juice companies put things on their labels such as; made from all natural fruit, or no artificial flavors. But the one thing I noticed on all juice labels is the promise of 100% vitamin C. For this reason I choose to test natural fruit juice, juice with artificial flavors, juice from concentrate, and juice made from powder, to see for myself, which one actually contains the most vitamin C.
Procedure:
BEFORE YOU START TESTING PREPARE THE IODINE INDICATOR
1. Mix cornstarch (1 tbsp) and water together and make a paste
2. Add 250ml of water and boil for five minutes
3. Add 10 drops of boiled solution to 75 ml of water
4. Add Iodine to the mixture until it turns a dark-purple color
TESTING AND COMPARING JUICE TESTED
1. Label each test tube with the juice to be added to it for testing
2. With a dropper, add 5ml of the Iodine Indicator solution to each test tube
3. Using a clean eye dropper each time (to prevent contamination), add 10 drops of each juice into the test tube with it’s name on it
4. Hold each test tube in front of a white piece of paper and determine their color (purple to clear)
5. Arrange test tubes (preferably in a test tube rack), from darkest in color to lightest in color and log results. (The darker the color means there is less vitamin C)
Hypothesis:
For this project I chose to test some of the most commonly drank juices and a few natural fruits. I tested 100% natural fruit juices such as: Tropicana pure premium orange juice, Kedem grape juice, Signature apple juice, V8 fusion, and Signature cranberry/apple juice. The artificially flavored juices I tested were: kool-aid, Capri sun juice boxes, Dasani berry water, Tang orange drink, and Sunny D. The frozen concentrated juices were: Signature fruit punch, Signature grape juice, and Signature orange juice. I also tested juice freshly squeezed from: Lemons, oranges, and limes. After several-repeated test to my surprise, the Signature Apple juice came out on top making my hypothesis incorrect. I thought the freshly squeezed orange juice, and the Tropicana orange juice would have the most vitamin C.