Measuring Protein and Vitamin C levels in Foods After Different Types of Cooking

Overview

Jake Vignevic #29 7th Grade Junior Division Chemistry St Gregory the Great Catholic School Measuring Protein and Vitamin C level in foods after different types of cooking Food is an everyday necessity and among these foods come vitamins and macromolecules. Protein is one of these macromolecules and they give energy, regenerate muscles, and build muscle. Vitamin C is a vitamin in many citrus fruits and vegetables that benefits your immune system and keeps your internal conditions stable. Using these tests I will be able to figure out what foods have the most Protein and Vitamin C after the different types of cooking. My hypothesis proposes that if I can figure out what foods have the best nutrients after different types of cooking I will greatly improve my health and the health of people around me. I will also be able to greatly increase people's mindset about themselves. So if I alter these variables I will be able to decide which foods and cooking styles are the most nutritious. Hypothesis: If I alter the cooking style of different foods then perform experiments to determine the vitamin level then I will be able to identify which foods and which cooking style is the most efficient. The control variables in my experiment were the different types of food like salmon sirloin, chicken for protein and for vitamin C. I had red bell peppers, tomatoes and broccoli. The independent variables were the different types of cooking method like baking, frying and grilling and the dependent variables are the protein and vitamin C levels in the cooked food. I used the Biuret test for protein and the iodine titration for the vitamin C food types. Procedure: Gather different kinds of food, like salmon, chicken, sirloin, broccoli, red bell peppers and tomatoes. Cook them with different cooking methods like grilling, baking and frying. Run test for proteins, using Biuret Reagent test and the iodine titration test for Vitamin C. Record the data. Results: These tests have shown that in the Vitamin C group tomatoes have done the best with an average of 31.33% followed by Broccoli with 26.883%, then Red Bell Peppers with 26.15%. In the protein food group, Salmon crushes the competition with a very high average value of 49.66% protein content followed by the chicken with an average of 42.916% and last is Sirloin with 41.66% protein content in its dishes. From the data averages it is clear that protein foods hold their nutrients better when cooked over the vegetables. Conclusion: My hypothesis was supported by my data. My experiments have shown that on an average salmon with 49.6% retains the highest protein value after being cooked. Similarily, tomatoes with an average of 31.3% have the highest vitamin content after being cooked by the various methods. Among the different cooking methods, frying is the worst and baking shows the best nutrient retention. for protein, it is clear that baking is the best to preserve the nutrient levels, sirloin had 1.74 milligrams of protein, chicken had 2.1 milligrams and salmon had 2.2 milligrams of protein.For the Vitamin C, the best cooking method was baking as well, 0.8 mg of vitamin C for red bell peppers, 0.7 mg for tomatoes and 0.8mg for broccoli. So we can conclude that frying is the worst type of cooking method while baking is the best when it comes to preserving the nutrients.

Awards (1)

• Category Award: 4

Competition history

• CSEF 2023 Chemistry · Entry J0607

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