Food lab

Summary of lab

This was our first lab of the year so far!

For a brief summary of this lab we started off with grabbing 2 food items of our liking, then we mashed it up in a bowl. We added some water so we can get in a syringe. After that we tested if there were proteins, carbs, lipids, and/or nucleic acids in those foods.

The foods that we had were jelly beans and a protein bar and theses were our hypothesis's,

Jelly beans: If we test jelly beans it will test positive for protein and carbs.

Protein bar: If we test a protein bar it will test positive for carbs and protein.

Protein bar

After we mashed the foods we grabbed a syringe and sucked some of the liquid in it. Depending on the macro molecule we would use a different indicators. For the protein bar we started off with testing for protein, we started withe the protein bar liquid in the syringe and poured it in a test tube. Then we added 2mL of Biuret. We spun it around a little bit and it turned dark purple meaning there was protein in it.

For our second test we tested for carbs, once again we started off with the liquid in the syringe. For this indicator we used 2ml of benidicts solution. After we poured the benidicts solution in the test tube. Immediately after we put it in some boiling water for 2 minutes. After we took it out it changed to a orange meaning there were carbs.

Jelly beans

It was kind of a struggle trying to mash them they would slip and always fall out of the bowl, in general it was kind of a pain but we made it work. We did the same thing as the protein bar. We did the 2mL of Biuret and it tested negative for protein it didnt really change colors.

For the carbs test we did the same thing, garbbed some of the jelly bean liquid, 2ml of benidicts, and lastly we put it in the boiling water and it tested negative. It just stayed the same color not much change.

Here are the 4 macromolecules that we used for these experiments

• Protein: transport oxygen, balance hormones, can be found in meat and eggs, it's monomer is amino acids

• Lipids: stabilizes and forms cell membranes, can be found in fried food and butter, it's monomer is fatty acids

• Carbs: give fuel to cellular energy, can be found in bread and sugar, it's monomer is simple sugar like glucose

• Nucleic Acids: stores and carries DNA, can be found in vitamins and minerals, it's monomer is nucleotide

Reflection

I feel like we did do alright, not really the best because of the foods we had but we made it work. It would have better a better/ more fun lab if we got better foods like some fruit. I feel like I did well on understanding what the indicators do and how to know if it tested positive or negative, that's was also a new skill I found out. I think as a group we did good on problem solving and collaborating because we didn't have foods and we problem solved and figured out how we could get some. Along with that we did good on saying what was happening and communicating smoothly. Overall as a group I think we did well