Task 3 - Food Science — Bishop Stopford School

Activity 3 - Food Preparation & Nutrition

Food is about more than just following a recipe. There is a lot of science involved and you will learn all about this during your lessons at Bishop Stopford School (as well as how to cook). Mrs Miles thought that you might want to try out a food science experiment and one is explained bellow.

Food Science

Have you ever noticed that some foods change colour when they are cut and left exposed to the air? This is called enzymic browning.

What foods have you seen this on?
Do you know why it happens?

Today you are going to carry out an experiment that will help you to discover how to slow down or prevent this process.

You will need:

Method

If using a banana or potato peel it.
Cut your food into 5 portions (get an adult to supervise or help you) and put some in each of the glasses or small pots.
Leave one glass/pot without any liquid in.
Add whichever liquids you want to the other 4 glasses so that the food is covered.
Oil should not be used on its own but may be used as a layer on top of one of the other liquids.
Record any colour difference after 10 mins, after 30 minutes and after an hour.

(if you have a phone with a camera you could take a picture each time but make sure you label the samples)

Results:

Which liquid worked best at preventing colour change?
Why do you think that is?
Do you think that the liquid would change the flavour of the food as well as preventing the colour change?