Sto. Niño Academy of Bamban, Inc.

Rizal Ave., San Nicolas, Bamban, Tarlac

Characteristics of Lipids in Food

Introduction:

Lipids are one of the major constituents of foods, and are important in our diet for many reasons. They are a major
source of energy and they provide essential lipid nutrients. Nevertheless, over-consumption of certain lipid components
can be detrimental to our health like cholesterol and saturated fats. In many foods the lipid component plays a huge role
in finding the overall physical characteristics, such as flavor, texture, odor, viscosity and appearance. For this reason, it
is difficult to develop low-fat alternatives of many foods because once the fat is removed some of the most important
physical characteristics are lost. Finally, many fats are prone to lipid oxidation, which leads to the formation of off-
flavors and potentially harmful products. Some of the most important properties of concern to the food analyst are:
* Total lipid concentration
* Type of lipids present
* Physicochemical properties of lipids, crystallization, melting point, smoke point, rheology, density and color
* Structural organization of lipids within a food

Objective:

Fats are essential to give your body energy and to support cell growth. They also help protect your organs and help
keep your body warm. Fats help your body absorb some nutrients and produce important hormones too. Our goal in
this activity that we created is to learn how much fats will lost in the materials that we used and realize which one of
the materials contain more fats. But our main goal in this activity is to know which one of the materials will help us to
give our body more energy.

Materials:

3 Petri dish
3 Beaker
3 Stirring rod
Mortar and Pestle
Evaporating dish
Alcohol lamp
Cubicle tongs
30ml Acetone
20g Chocolate
20g Peanut
20g Potato chips
Aluminum Foil
Weighing Scale
 Weight

Food Sample % of Lipid

Empty Beaker w/ Sample Beaker w/ Weight lost of
Beaker sample dried sample sample

Chocolate 105.15 g 110.18 g 5.03 g 109.7873 g 0.3927 g 7.8 %

Nuts 98.11 g 103.23 g 5.12 g 102.314 g 0.916 g 17.69 %

Potato Chips 105.41 g 110.43 g 5.02 g 109.1949 g 1.2351 g 24.6 %

Procedure:
Part 1: Extraction of fat from chocolate

1. Weigh out 5 grams of chocolate then melt the chocolate in a beaker.

2. Label the beakers that you are using to put the food in, one each for chocolate, potato chips, and nuts. Record the
weights of the labeled beakers.
 3. Using the beaker that is labeled for chocolate and record the weight with the melted chocolate.

4. Add 10 milliliters of acetone in the graduated cylinder then pour it into the beaker that has the food material in it
 5. Swirl the chocolate for 1 minute in a hood, or stir with a glass rod (in a well-ventilated area).

6. Allow the acetone in the Petri dish to dry overnight in a hook (or a well-ventilated area) to visualize the lipid that
was extracted.

7. Allow the beaker with the chocolate to dry overnight. Weight the beaker with the chocolate.
 Part 2: Extraction of Fat from Potato Chips

1. Weigh out 5 grams of potato chips. Crush the chips in the aluminum-wrapped mortar and a pestle.
2. Repeat steps 2-7 in part 1.

Part 3: Extraction of Fat from Nuts

1. Weigh out 5 grams of nuts. Crush the nuts in the aluminum-wrapped mortar and a pestle.
2. Repeat steps 2-7 in part 1.
Data and Results:

Food Sample Color Texture Odor Viscosity

Chocolate Cloudy Brown Coarse and Waxy Chocolate Dry and Hard Oil

Nut Light Yellow Smooth and Oily Nutty Thick Oil

Potato Chips Light Yellow Smooth and Oily Potato Chips Thick Oil

3 samples that were soaked in the acetone became dry which are the chocolate, potato and peanut plus their weight
became lighter. The more lighter or massive weight loss the more the percentage of lipid. And we also saw how much
fat is lost in each material that we tested. The extracted oil from the chocolate had coarse texture, solid viscosity and
changing in odor so we knew that it contained unsaturated fatty acids. Unlike the first one, the extracted oil from the
potato chips had smooth texture, medium viscosity and no changing in odor and color so we knew that it was
unsaturated fat. And the last, the extracted oil from the nuts had smooth texture, solid viscosity, no changing in color,
but changing in odor so we think of it and presume that the sunflower seeds contain both unsaturated and saturated fats.

Conclusion:

Based on the datas and results, we used the acetone as a solvent to detect the lipids in the three food samples; chocolate,
nuts, and potato chips. When the foods were crushed and mixed with the acetone, fats came out from the foods. We
also extracted lipids from the food to find that which food contained the most and the least amount of lipids. We then
found that nuts contained lipids the most, the second was potato chips, and the least was chocolate. The nuts had the
highest percentage of lipid extraction. Moreover, we can also know that which food contained saturated fatty acids and
which one contained unsaturated fatty acids by observing the description (the texture, color, odor and viscosity) of the
fats, which was extracted from each food. The extracted oil from the chocolate had coarse texture, solid viscosity and
changing in odor so we knew that it contained unsaturated fatty acids. Unlike the first one, the extracted oil from the
potato chips had smooth texture, medium viscosity and no changing in odor and color so we knew that it was
unsaturated fat. And the last, the extracted oil from the nuts had smooth texture, solid viscosity, no changing in color,
but changing in odor so we think of it and presume that the sunflower seeds contain both unsaturated and saturated fats.

Recommendation:

For the recommendation, Our group failed at first because we already washed those beaker that has our experiment
which are the nuts, chips, and chocolate with acetone. Observation of each beaker and petri dishes' difference is a must
before washing both. And for the best results, observe and follow the instruction directly.