Class: BE210
Group: W6
Members: Jennifer Friel –Presenter, Rainer Hahn - Scribe, Patrick
Lee - Facilitator, Ameesha Patel – Time and Task
Date: May 7, 1999
Abstract:
The objectives of this experiment were to determine the calcium content
of three breakfast foods using atomic absorption spectrophotometry and
to identify a calcium extraction procedure that gives the most precise
and accurate results.
The three breakfast foods tested in this experiment were skim milk, orange juice and Egg Beater’s brand egg substitute. It was concluded that skim milk had the highest calcium content of 143.95 mg/100g ? 3.1%, followed by orange juice with 42.64 mg/100g ? 5.5% and liquid egg substitute with 11.53 mg/100g ? 2.1%. The value for the egg substitute was not statistically different from published results; however, the skim milk and orange juice values were both outside the 95% confidence intervals of the USDA published values.
In addition, HCl was determined to be more efficient at extracting calcium
from the food samples than TCA. A one-hour extraction period and
20 minute spin time were established as the optimal conditions for the
extraction.