Questions tagged [food-chemistry]
For questions related to the chemistry of food.
396
questions
-2
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0answers
21 views
For ash content determination [closed]
Why do you need to know the mass of the crucible without the sample in ash content determination?
As for me, I think that as part of the procedure for the determination of the ash content of any ...
-2
votes
1answer
16 views
why did a mixture of water, sugar, starch effervesce after adding a little bit of glycerol as humectant? cooking at 130 degrees celsius [closed]
I am trying a new formulation of lokum (turkish delight) which is a gel composed of starch, water and sugar. After adding 0.5% of glycerol to a 170 Kg of a boiling mixture, it became fugitive and ...
1
vote
2answers
146 views
What is the composition of diet coke?
I've been trying to find the values of any sort of percentage composition of diet coke and I haven't found any luck other than one interviewee (Dr. MAUREEN STOREY [Senior Vice President, Science ...
-2
votes
0answers
43 views
Why does Stevia create bubbles in carbonated water
I sometimes add stevia to carbonated water with a small amount of juice or vinegar. Regardless of whether I add the stevia before vinegar or after it creates a LOT of bubbles- as though you shook the ...
3
votes
1answer
169 views
Procedure for measuring EC
Most of the procedures on the internet are of a university research lab level. Is there a simpler method I could use to determine the concentration of EGCG
3
votes
0answers
45 views
How to maximize shelf-life of freeze-dried food beyond 25 years? Can this exceed 100 years?
Many manufacturers will sell and advertise emergency preparedness food packs to still taste "great" 25-30 years into the future (or at least maintain a consistent taste over this period). ...
1
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0answers
33 views
Understanding the pH scale for edible food!
I'm working on a website where I want to provide the pH level of plants! Although i don't even know what this is (I have zero knowledge in chemistry), I have to provide it! What I want to do is ...
0
votes
1answer
137 views
Does sour milk have something else in it besides lactic acid that gives it such a horrific taste and odor?
Even slightly sour milk has a horrible, nauseating taste, while plain yogurt tastes either great, or at least nowhere near as bad. A dozen sources (all of them) say that the sour odor and taste of ...
-3
votes
1answer
89 views
Turning oil into solid for candles [closed]
I added stearic acid to hot vegetable oil and saw it turned to a sludgy, slush material in about 1.5 hours. Is there any other natural additive that I can add to make it more solid in the same amount ...
2
votes
0answers
22 views
Is there a known value for the molar extinction (absorption) coefficient for amylose and amylopectin iodine complexes?
I am doing a colorimetry experiment with starch, and have a theoretical model based on Beer's law. To solve it, I need a known value for the molar extinction coefficients of amylose and amylopectin ...
0
votes
0answers
14 views
How reliable would commercially available starch be as a standard for an experiment?
I am conducting a student experiment of finding the amylose to amylopectin ratio of certain samples using an iodine colorimetry method. In order to calculate the actual ratios, I need a standard to ...
3
votes
0answers
44 views
What do we know about the structure of the amylopectin iodine complex?
I am studying a method of finding the ratio between amylose and amylopectin using the difference in color of the amylose-iodine complex(blue) and the amylopectin-iodine complex (red/brown).
Through ...
14
votes
1answer
2k views
Why do green bell peppers become bitter when cooked?
Why do green bell peppers taste sweet raw, but become bitter when cooked (steamed)?
What chemical process is responsible for this? (I don't believe the temperatures are high enough for the Maillard ...
0
votes
0answers
49 views
What does solid matrix mean?
I am reading "Effect of Freeze-Drying on Quality and Grinding
Process of Food Produce": A Review by Timilehin Martins Oyinloye and Won Byong Yoon.
The problem is they are referring to the ...
0
votes
0answers
12 views
Improving protein solubility in Water solvent (food science)?
I am trying to form a solution involving mixing my protein shakes. I am using a vegetable protein and it has poor solubility. Is their another protein I could use to entrap it to improve solubility? ...
0
votes
0answers
35 views
Carcinogenicity of home coated cast iron pans
Cast iron pans are a traditional cooking utensil and are becoming more and more popular in recent years.
I myself switched from Teflon/ PFC pans to cast iron pans.
To use the pan they are normally ...
-1
votes
1answer
22 views
Could shear force from blending denature alpha amylase / glucoamylase enzymes?
I am trying to break down the starches in a certain variety of oats in the most efficient way possible. I have to break the whole oats down after cooking, so they are finer particles for the amylases ...
14
votes
1answer
448 views
What factors promote honey's crystallisation?
Honey is a complex mixture containing, probably, more than hundred compounds.
I understand that the % of those components will affect the crystallisation.
However, I am wondering what factors may ...
2
votes
0answers
32 views
How does iodine react with amylose and amylopectin, and can iodine colorimetry be used to determine the ratio between the two starches?
Based on some of the methods of studying starches in rice I looked at, I found that there are two general distinctions:
ones that focus on the ratio between amylose and amylopectin
ones that focus ...
2
votes
0answers
50 views
Why does sodium citrate in water turn black when blueberries are added?
I recently started making oral rehydration therapy for someone I'm taking care of who developed POTS after COVID-19 infection. (ORT was recommended by their doctor.) I use the standard ingredients of ...
5
votes
1answer
62 views
Can Fe and Ca react and become unusable in some foods?
In Turkish cuisine there is a popular food called "tahin pekmez" (tahini with grape molasses).
According to a 2017 article on some Turkish news site, mixing these is supposedly counter-...
1
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0answers
36 views
How to extract limonene from the orange peels?
What is a reasonable procedure to extract the orange essential oil from the rinds? I thought this would be a common experiment.
Here's what Wikipedia had to say, they identify the essential oil as ...
0
votes
0answers
25 views
Carbon Sequestration For Indoor Farming
First the backstory:
We've begun growing mushrooms (currently Enoki, Lion's Mane and Blue Oysters if anyone is curious) for the sake of eating and maybe potentially selling someday soon. My partner ...
-1
votes
4answers
97 views
If I hard boil eggs in a pressure cooker, will I get the same results regardless of altitude?
This seems like it should be obvious but for some reason (my chemistry is very rusty) I'm having a hard time articulating why the hardboiled egg recipe in an instant pot should yield the same results ...
2
votes
4answers
87 views
How to correct the pH and composition of bottled water?
For some time I've been buying a brand 'A' of (non-sparkling) bottled water.
It wasn't easy to find one that I liked, because I make tea with it, and most other brands I tried made murky, smelly, dark ...
27
votes
2answers
3k views
The importance of the cold chain in the food and the pharmaceutical industry
There are these everyday things that one should know as a scientist and especially as a chemist, but which never come to light in an academic curriculum — at least not in mine.
One such thing is the ...
8
votes
0answers
360 views
Does heating potato starch destroy its resistant starch?
Resistant starch, as found in potato starch, is supposed to have health benefits. There are differing opinions on whether or not heating potato starch destroys the resistant starch in it and thereby ...
4
votes
1answer
503 views
Why are there no alkaline foods?
It takes some work to find a list of the actual pH of various foods. (Searches are confounded by a popular "alkaline diet" theory that the pH effect on a human body of consuming various ...
1
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0answers
128 views
Does fractionation use enough heat to destroy nutrients in Coconut Oils when seperating the MCT oils?
We have recently been giving MCT (medium-chain triglyceride) oil to our dogs in place of Coconut Oil as from what I understand the majority of the benefits of Coconut Oil comes from the MCT's ...
0
votes
0answers
13 views
Is puffing through high pressure release the only way to make puffed cereal from a starch based mix or are there food safe chemical approaches?
I'm attempting to make puffed cereal at home and I was wondering with a chemical approach if it is possible to achieve the same structure and expansion which for example a puffing gun would be needed. ...
7
votes
2answers
2k views
Are food calorie values really integers?
According to what I've seen, fat has a listed caloric value of 9 Cal/g, while carbs and protein have listed caloric values of 4 Cal/g.* Are these numbers exact, or have they been rounded? And if they ...
0
votes
1answer
95 views
What is the main contributor of the color of honey? [closed]
I was told that the color of honey contains so much chemistry and that was interesting to me and after doing a couple of research I found that the color of honey depends on the presence of plant ...
0
votes
1answer
320 views
Are there any tasteless edible salts? [closed]
I saw on Youtube a video where caffeine was extracted from Red Bull using dichloromethane. However, due to dichloromethane tendency to form emulsions with liquid, an inefficient method was used to mix ...
24
votes
4answers
9k views
Can we fill potato chips bags with a gas other than nitrogen?
I understand that we fill potato chips bag with nitrogen to prevent oxidation. But why do we use nitrogen, instead of neon or hydrogen or something else?
My first guess is that nitrogen is lighter ...
0
votes
0answers
37 views
Lowering the freezing point of a lipid by adding another lipid
I'm trying to stop bacon grease from congealing in the fridge by adding another lipid with a lower freeze point to it, but I'm not sure how much to add, as I'd like to keep the ratio as bacon-grease ...
2
votes
1answer
74 views
Chemistry of heat and egg whites
I tried to make Italian buttercream icing the other day and followed this recipe.
Unfortunately, the icing was completely runny / liquid. So I know I made a mistake somewhere.
But since I don't ...
2
votes
1answer
103 views
Chemical composition of silver tarnish
I had taken as a given that silver tarnish is a layer of silver sulfide on the surface of a utensil, and that cleaning it using a thiourea based agent like Tarn-X dissolves the sulfide layer.
However,...
4
votes
2answers
757 views
How to measure the color of honey? [closed]
After doing some research, I found that honey's color could be a factor of climate. I am very interested in this subject and I'm a high school student so we don't have as much apparatus as you would ...
0
votes
1answer
193 views
Ripening of bananas?
So, obviously the ripening of bananas involves changing it’s chemical composition. For example, ripe bananas have a much higher amount of sugar.
It is also known that reaction rates are generally ...
-2
votes
1answer
126 views
Cooking IN CO2 gas? [closed]
Quick theoretical question:
What if I replaced water with dry ice in my pressure cooker? Assuming I used a calculated amount to prevent an explosion...
Would It be able to cook?
Would it dehydrate ...
7
votes
1answer
758 views
Does storing apples alongside potatoes keep potatoes from sprouting?
I am looking for a chemical explanation which I wasn't able to find.
I have read in several sources such as this one that, in order to prevent potatoes from sprouting, it is sufficient to store a few ...
2
votes
1answer
300 views
Why is absorbance in UV-VIS spectrometer negative even after calibration?
I was collecting data to plot a calibration curve using pure beta-carotene sample. Prepared 5 different concentrations of beta-carotene dissolved in methanol. Pure methanol was used as blank. However, ...
3
votes
3answers
1k views
Is there a way to create natural Red food coloring from Turmeric in the house kitchen?
As a non chemist I have read in the Wikipedia article Curcumin that:
Curcumin becomes bright red when it interacts electrostatically with
phospholipid film.
This text appeared without source ...
5
votes
2answers
457 views
Is there any way to chemically check sweetness level in any drink or water or tea etc?
I was wondering if there is a test or way to find out how sweet any drink is? For example, if I mix sugar in water, how can I test its level or number of sweetness?
3
votes
1answer
133 views
How can they “wash away” the caffeine from Nescafe Gold to produce that “de-caf” version?
I buy and drink Nescafe Gold all the time. I also buy the smaller "caffeine-free" version of the same product. It tastes very differently, which makes me assume that the caffeine does have a lot of ...
29
votes
3answers
10k views
What substances do humans consume that are caloric but neither protein, carb, nor fat?
On the Medical Sciences StackExchange site I asked Can a calorie be neither protein, carb, nor fat?
and got a very helpful answer, which was that ethanol (in alcoholic drinks) is caloric but neither ...
0
votes
1answer
21 views
salts affecting the salinity of water [closed]
I know there are different types of salts like Himalayan salts table salts etc. I was wonder do different types of salts have a different level in salinity when dissolved in water.
0
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0answers
32 views
What's a non-toxic flavorless water-soluable chemical I could use for freezing point depression when making ice cream?
I'd like to make a savory version of ice cream. So I can't use sugar or any artificial sweeteners for the freezing point depression needed to control ice crystal sizes. What can I use?
3
votes
1answer
700 views
Cleaning with Vinegar - what surfaces does it react badly with? Metal window sills ok?
I'm cleaning up some mould around the home and I have some substance on my window sills which I'm not quite sure if it's dirt or mould.
I have read about using Vinegar to clean up mould, but an ...
0
votes
0answers
42 views
How can a DPPH assay to measure antioxidant activity of beta carotene be conducted?
I am currently doing some research regarding beta-carotene. With reference to other sources and their methodoloy for DPPH assay, I conducted my experiment but failed to find any significant peak in ...
