Color Match: Candy Chromatography

Overview

Objectives/Goals To determine if the food dyes used in making similar colored chocolate candies made in two different countries are the same. Methods/Materials I used paper chromatography to find the retention factors of the food dyes used in green, blue and red M&Ms (made in the USA) and green, blue and red Smarties (made in the UK). Using distilled water, I extracted the dye from 20 pieces of each color of the M&Ms. I prepared and tested 5 paper chromatography strips for each color. Then I repeated the same procedure for the Smarties. Out of curiosity, I tested green, blue and red liquid food dyes to see if I can identify any of the dyes used in the candies by comparing the retention factors. Results My results showed that the retention factors for the food dyes used in M&Ms and Smarties were not the same. Conclusions/Discussion My conclusion is that the food dyes used in making M&Ms and Smarties are different. From my research, I found out that the food dyes used in M&Ms are artificial, while the food dyes used in Smarties are natural.

Competition history

• CSEF 2009 Chemistry · Entry J0501

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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