In recent years, the food industry has been undergoing major changes driven by new social and environmental demands. Nowadays, biodegradable packaging is perceived as the most feasible alternative for food packaging. Great efforts are being devoted to the development of new materials from agro-industrial wastes and byproducts that are opening new…

A major challenge when designing new experiments for the general chemistry laboratory is introducing students to the necessary techniques while keeping the experiment engaging and accessible. This work presents a new multiweek activity designed to introduce students to advanced instrumentation in the form of high-performance liquid chromatography…

In 2002, the Swedish National Food Agency and researchers from Stockholm University made an announcement regarding the presence of acrylamide in carbohydrate-rich foods that are exposed to high temperatures, with cereals, potatoes, and coffee possibly being the most significant sources of ingestion. Although limited data are available on assessing…

A culinary exploration of the role of CO[subscript 2] in leavening is described. This demonstration substitutes dry ice for chemical leaveners in order to achieve the same pancake fluffiness. Under the universal framework of food and cooking, we developed this activity to bring aspects of phase transitions and chemical transformations to a broad…

The amount of protein in complex matrices such as food products is an important characteristic, at both a nutritional and a pedagogical level. There are several methods available for protein quantification, from simple UV absorption to mass spectrometry. The most common are based on the interaction of the proteins with colored compounds followed…

Herein we describe an accessible and safe at-home experiment to separate lycopene from tomatoes via liquid-liquid extraction. As a qualitative experiment, it is a canonically elementary instance for high school students to digest the conception of miscibility, immiscibility, and density difference of the two solvents. This experiment was performed…

Practical experiments enhance students' understanding of basic concepts and promote deep learning experiences in chemistry. The smartphone application of Lab4Chemistry was utilized to replace colorimeters with smartphone camera sensors. Low-cost and readily available materials, including anthocyanin (fresh red cabbage) and common kitchen…

Tofu, a traditional Chinese food, is now popular worldwide. However, few people notice the chemistry that is involved in its production. To shed light on this, we have designed a simple demonstration for lower-level undergraduates in organic chemistry or biochemistry courses to help them understand the chemistry principles that underlie the…

Students quantified the protein content in beer, milk, powdered milk, and whey protein using the Bradford assay. The assay was carried out using absorbance measured at 595 nm (standard method) and 96-well-plate images (proposed method). They built analytical curves using bovine serum albumin (BSA) and casein and determined that protein type…

The pharmacologically active lignans sesamin and sesamolin are minor components of sesame oil and ingredients in OTC dietary supplement capsules. We report an introductory undergraduate organic laboratory experiment combining natural product isolation and spectral analysis in which students isolate a mixture of sesamin and sesamolin by either (1)…

In today's global economy, the origin of the food we eat is becoming more and more difficult to identify. Verifying the authenticity of products to protect supply chains is a complicated problem that requires a multidisciplinary approach. Chemical authentication of foodstuffs often includes a mass spectrometer detector; however, they are costly…

We have expanded Stein's "Sweetness of Aspartame" laboratory project (Stein, P. J. "J. Chem. Educ." 1997, 74, 1112, DOI: 10.1021/ed074p1112) to include extensive use of statistical testing. Students test the statistical significance of a nonzero intercept in a linear regression, bias in comparison to a true value, and…

Triterpenic acids (TA), a class of triterpenoids, are widely distributed as secondary metabolites in plants. They have a pentacyclic structure and show high structural diversity. In this work, a simple but efficient method for extraction and detection of TA derivatives from apple peels is described. The method is technically straightforward and…

An experiment for the upper-level biochemistry laboratory is described in which students isolate a wild yeast from environmental sources and characterize the strain for its potential in the brewing industry. In addition to providing valuable experience in important biochemical techniques, this study also illustrates key principles of…

The adulteration of food products, including honeys and syrups, is of growing concern in global food markets. Detecting adulterated food products can be difficult using traditional analytical methodologies because of complex sample matrices or poor separation of key compounds. NMR is an analytical tool that circumvents some of these issues by…