Student Exploration: Identifying Nutrients

Have you ever wondered what is in your food? Scientists use a variety of tests to determine the nutritional content of
food. You will learn four of those tests with the Identifying Nutrients Gizmo.

Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation.

Respond to the questions and prompts.

Gizmo Introduction:
Most food is composed of three types of molecules: carbohydrates, proteins,
and lipids.
- Carbohydrates such as starches and sugars are a major source of
energy. Simple sugars are found in sweets and fruits. Starches are
found in potatoes, cereal, pasta, flour, and other plant products.
- Proteins are used in body structures such as muscles, skin, and hair.
Rich sources of proteins include meats, dairy products, and beans.
- Lipids (fats and oils) are used for energy, insulation, and as an
essential building block of cells. Meats, dairy products, and oily plants
such as olives are rich in lipids.

Substance Does this contain carbohydrate, lipid, protein, or none?

Butter
Oranges
Corn or potatoes
Egg whites
Water

Activity A: Get the Gizmo ready:

Identifying ● Click Reset.

nutrients ● Drag Sample A into the Food sample holder.

Question: How do you test for carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids?

1. Test: The Benedict test is a test for monosaccharides; simple sugars like glucose or fructose (fruit
sugar). In contact with monosaccharides, the Benedict solution turns from blue to green to orange.
Does Sample A contain monosaccharides?
Note: Disaccharides such as sucrose (table sugar) and lactose (milk sugar) are more complex than
monosaccharides. The Benedict test does not detect disaccharides directly.

2. Test: The Lugol test uses iodine to test for starch, a polysaccharide (complex sugar).
Iodine turns dark purple in the presence of starch.

Under Lugol test, click Test. Does sample A contain starch?

3. Test: The Biuret test uses a solution of potassium hydroxide (KOH) and copper sulfate (CuSO4) to test for
protein. The Biuret solution turns purple when proteins are present.

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 Under Biuret test, click Test. Does sample A contain proteins?

4. Test: The Sudan Red test uses a fat-soluble dye, Sudan Red, to indicate the presence of lipids. When lipids
are present, the dye will be absorbed into the lipids, and will appear as concentrated spots of color in the test
tube. (No spots indicates that lipids are not present.)

Under Sudan Red test, click Test. Does sample A contain

lipids?

5. Summarize: What nutrients does sample A contain? _________________________________

6. Analyze: What kind of food is sample A most likely to be? (Circle one)
Apple juice Baked beans Oatmeal Scrambled eggs
7. Explain: How do you know? Use evidence from the tests and macromolecules to support your claim
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

Activity B: Get the Gizmo ready:

Nutrients and
food types ● Click Reset.

Question: Who took Jerell’s air pods? How could knowing what nutrients each food sample contains help you
solve the mystery?
Jerell is a 10th grade student at La Habra High who works at McDonald’s on the weekends. While on break, Jerell
was studying for his biology test and listening to music on his new air pods. There were five other workers taking a
break at the same time, each having something different for lunch.

Jerell‘s girlfriend stopped by near the end of his break, and he rushed out to see her and forgot his air pods and
biology book in the break room. When he realized, he hurried back and found only his biology book and some spilled
food. His air pods were gone!

At first Jerell freaked out, but he calmed down when he realized he could use his knowledge of organic compounds to
figure out which of his coworkers left the spilled food on his biology book while taking his air pods.

1. Collect data: Use the four available tests to find the nutritional content of samples on the table below. (Sample A
has been done for you as an example.) Record the results.

Carbohydrate Protein Lipids

Test results – are these nutrients present?
Tests Test Test

Food Benedict Lugol Biuret Sudan Mono-

Starches Proteins Lipids
sample test test test Red test saccharides

A + – – – Yes No No No
B

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 F
H
I
M

2. Analyze: Look at the results for samples. Which sample came from each person? How do you know?

Which food sample matches?

Worker in
Lunch they were eating Give the letter and describe the evidence that
break room
supports your conclusion.

Andrew Pasta

Grace Full-Fat Greek Yogurt

Heidi Water only

Adrian Steak

Seth Fruit salad

3. Solve the Mystery: Jerell has tested samples of food left by the thief.

The food residue found on the book reacted positively for the Lugol test, but negatively to the Benedict test,
Biuret test, and Sudan test.
Who is the Thief? What is your evidence to support this claim?

4. Use your assignments and notes to fill in the blanks:

Our bodies are made up of the same types of organic compounds as all other living organisms.
Complete the following sentences by filling in each blank to indicate the function of each type of
molecules in different parts of our body.

a. The carbohydrate, Glucose, is carried by our blood to all the cells in our body. Our cells use the glucose
for
_______________.
b. Our bodies do not make starch, but we often eat plant foods which contain starch which we
digest into _____________, the building block that is used to make starch.
c. Lipids are found in fat cells in our bodies. The fat cells store lipid molecules to be used for
______________ if a person can not get enough food.
d. Our muscles contain lots of protein. This protein enables the muscles to _____________.
e. DNA is a nucleic acid that is found in every cell. DNA carries the ____________
information.
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We have a situation and need your help! A generous donor has shipped dry food pellets to an animal rescue
and rehabilitation center in Africa. The delivery supplied numerous animals in their care with weeks of nutrient
filled pellets. Unfortunately a number of bags were delivered without labels! The only animal food missing from
the shipment belonged to the elephants and lions. A replacement delivery would be expensive and take several
weeks to arrive. Researchers decided to test the unlabeled pellets for the presence of macromolecules
necessary in the diet of each animal. Based on the presence / absence of specific macromolecules the food can
be distributed to the appropriate organisms! They need our help to determine which unlabeled food goes to the
lions and which goes to the elephants!

Both of the food bags from the donor were liquified using distilled water and filtered to be able to perform the
lab tests for each macromolecule on each food sample. The results of the testing is recorded below:

5. Complete the Table showing the types of nutrients found in each of the food samples.
Carbohydrate Protein Lipids
Test results – are these nutrients present?
Tests Test Test

Food Benedict Lugol Biuret Sudan Mono-

Starches Proteins Lipids
sample test test test Red test saccharides
Food
+ + + –
Bag A
Food
- - + +
Bag B

Use Table 1 on “Macromolecules: What are the building blocks of life?” and the table above to determine the
following:

Which Food Bag should you feed to the elephants? Why?_____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

Which Food Bag should you feed to the lions? Why?_____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

Finished early? Play Macromolecule Man! Link is Posted in Google Classroom.

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