Food Tests

Food tests are tests for different biological molecules (food groups). Examples of food groups include protein, carbohydrates and starch. Different types of solutions, such as iodine, benedict's solution, and biuret are used to test for products in certain food groups. This will go through three stages, explaining how to conduct your food tests step by step in a dedicated section.

Testing for Starch (experiment)

Iodine is used to test for starch in food products. This test involves different types of foods, which include pasta, biscuits, crisps, cereal hoops, salt, mustard powder and sugar, though any types of food (such as sweet sprinkles and condiments) will work in this experiment to test for starch in these products.

Preparations:

Before conducting any biology or science experiment, make sure to define your dependent, independent and control variables before testing.

Safety Precautions:

Iodine is very toxic to aquatic life and it is harmful to humans in large quantities, so take these precautions into account before conducting this experiment. Make sure you do not eat the food while it is being experimented on, because this may ruin the results of the experiment and may be harmful.

Conducting the Experiment:

Ingredients used to conduct a food test with iodine

Make sure you have prepared all of the required foods and the iodine before conducting this experiment to test for starch.

Start by taking the food and adding a small amount of iodine to one of the foods.

Notice how the food product changes colours to either brown or orange. What does this

Continue the experiment with the other foods. What do these findings show?

Make sure to record these results on a piece of paper.

Conclusion:

The findings show that if foods have starch in them, the iodine turns black, while if they do not have starch in them, they will go orange. What are you able to learn from this experiment? What does this show? Can you further elaborate on this?

Testing for Sugar

Benedict's solution is used to test for glucose (sugar) in food products, unlike iodine which tests for starch.

Equipment and Preparations:

For this experiment you will require a Bunsen burner, benedict's solution, a beaker, water ,a tripod, a gauze, test tubes and a wide variety of food products. As mentioned in the first experiment, make sure to define your dependent, independent and your control variables.

Safety Precautions:

Benedict's solution is an irritant to the body, so be careful before putting it into certain objects. Bunsen burners also pose a hazard, due to it posing a risk of burning certain objects, so make sure to keep it away from parts of the body.

Conducting the Experiment:

Before you conduct the experiment, make sure you have set up your resources., as these will be important for the experiment.

Start by putting the Benedict's solution in the test tubes, making sure you put an equal amount into each, allowing it to be a fair test.