Man T Thai

Partners: John Miller, Sydney Cabellon

Lab section 7, Th 8:00-11:00
Analysis of fat in popular salad dressings
Introduction:
As consumers demand on health-oriented products spiked within the recent decades,
the use of salad dressings, healthy fat-rich condiments, also increased by 2.6% over the
past three years (9). Our group decided to study the fat analysis of common salad
dressings. We combined extraction method and bomb calorimetry to measure percentage
of fat per gram of dressings and the energy produced per gram fat of per serving of three
different salad dressings: Caesar, Ranch, Balsamic Vinaigrette, and Thousand Island.
This study was at first intended to determine which of these dressings produced the
most energy from fat per serving. Due to equipment constraint, we were unable to
accurately determine the identity and the amount of fat from dressings, which in fact
contributed to the differences in the amount of energy produced. However, we initially
hypothesized that Thousand Island will supply the most energy per gram fat based on the
total fat content of the main ingredients of these dressings. Caesar had Romano cheese and
vegetable oil, Ranch dressing was mainly made of sour cream, Vinaigrette mostly consisted
of vinegar and oil, and Thousand Island dressing contained not only oil but mayonnaise,
which in fact has more total fat compared to sour cream and Romano cheese (1),(2),(3).
The information of calories per serving only provides consumers the overall energy one
serving has rather than the exact calories from its fat content. Since fat energy was more
significant as it provided even more energy compared to carbohydrates (4) and it aided in
vitamins absorbance (5), it was crucial to determine the appropriate dressings to meet
each individuals dietary need.
Chemistry of fat:
Fat is generally a compound of glycerol and fatty acids, the composition of fatty acids
will determine if the fat is whether saturated or unsaturated, the hydrogen ions around the
double bond can be either on opposite sides (trans) or on the same side (cis). Fat is non-
polar so it will dissolve easily in petroleum ether, a non-polar solvent.
Fat molecule:
Equation for oil combustion:
+ xO2 (g) yCO2(g) + zH2O(g) + Heat
Materials and Methods:
With the help of Chemistry department, we obtained four salad dressings of Kens
Steakhouse: Caesar, Ranch, Thousand Island and Vinaigrette. These dressings were not
only common in daily use but were also good representatives of fat-rich ingredients.
Furthermore, each dressing came with different texture, color and primary phase, which
suggested a varying result in energy produced.
At first we extracted the fat from the dressings using extraction method. By adding
100ml of petroleum ether, a nonpolar solvent that can bond to nonpolar fat molecules and
separate the mixture of petroleum ether and fat from the whole solution. This required
stirring for at least five minutes on the magnetic stir plate to ensure than petroleum ether
and fat had a sufficient time to bond to each other wholly. After five minutes of mixing, we
gravity-filtered the mixtures to transfer the petroleum ether-fat layer into new and labeled
beakers. With the dressings left after filtering, we added another 50ml of petroleum ether
and stirred for another five minutes and gravity-filtered again to maximize the amount of
fat that could have been extracted. Then we left those beakers under the fume hood for a
week and come back to gather the extracted fat, and did bomb calorimetry and collected
data using LoggerPro (8).
Data and Results:
Despite we followed the same steps for every trial, we found out that the amount of fat
extracted varied between trials significantly, especially Caesar and 1000 island. The second
key observation we made was that the fat extracted came in as liquid oil instead of solid fat.
This suggested that either we could not extract solid fat out of dressings or there was no or
too little solid fat in these dressings. The final observation we made was that during bomb
calorimetry, the temperature changes were shown on LoggerPro. At first it was stable, at a
low constant then after we ignited the bomb, the curve raised up dramatically then reached
a constant at the end, forming an S curve.
Data recorded:
Table 1. Mass of sample and mass of extracted fat from sample A and sample B.
Sample A Sample B
mraw
sample(g)
mextracted
fat(g) T (C)
mraw
sample(g)

mextracted
fat(g)

T (C)
Caesar 10.0 5.31 2.57 10.3 2.48 2.72
1000 island 10.0 1.20 2.24 10.0 0.611 2.24
Vinaigrette 10.0 2.99 2.58 10.0 2.50 2.02
Ranch 11.1 0.520 0.74 10.0 0.486 0.74

Base on the change in temperature for each combustion and heat capacity of the
calorimeter, we can calculate energy produced per gram of fat by using the bomb
calorimetry equations (7). Base on the mass of extracted fat per sample and the mass of
that sample, we can calculate the percentage of fat present in our sample by using the
percentage equation.
Equations:
Bomb calorimetry equations:
qrxn= -qcalorimeter
qcalorimeter = Ctotal x T
Ctotal = Ccalorimeter + C H2O
CH2O = Cs H2O x mH2O ( Cs H2O =4.184 J/gC)
Other equations:
Percentage of fat =



Total fat per serving (30g dressings) =
Result:
Table 2. Average values of percentage of fat, total fat per serving, qrxn per gram of fat and
qrxn per serving (30g dressing).
Average
Percentage
of fat (%)
Total fat
/serving (g)
qrxn/gram
(kcal/g)
qrxn/serving
(kcal)
Caesar 38.5 11.6 16.9 191
1000 Island 9.03 2.71 16.8 45.6
Vinaigrette 27.4 8.23 17.2 141
Ranch 4.75 1.43 16.3 23.2

Table 3. Values of qrxn per gram of fat and qrxn per serving (30g of dressings) of entire
dressings.
Sample C
qrxn/gram of fat (kcal/g) qrxn/serving (kcal/30 g of dressing)
Caesar 11.8 213
1000 Island 8.61 112
Vinaigrette 14.4 144
Ranch 8.90 134

Conclusion:
Percentage of fat varied significantly both between trials and between individual
dressing, ranging from 4.76 to 38.5. Energy from fat, on the other, was more similar to each
other and ranged from 16.3 to 17.2 in kcal/g. Sample A and B, both of which were fat,
produced relatively higher energy compared to sample C, which was entire dressing.
Our calculated values for percentage of fat and fat calories did not match any of the
values obtain from the manufacturers (Table 4) . Possible explanation was unclear source
of manufacturers value, as we calculated fat burnt by bomb calorimeter, and the
manufacturer might have calculated fat burnt by human metabolism, which must not share
the same mechanism and efficiency with a bomb calorimeter.
One of the source of error was human calculation, as though the group had three
people, still our calculation might not be as precise for all significant figures, which could
also contribute to false results. Another possible culprit was the inefficient extraction
method, as for previous projects, this method was not meant to be quantitative, because it
could not extract fat completely from the dressings but only a small amount for bomb
calorimetry.
This result gave an answer to our question in the introduction, by stating that Caesar
provided the most fat and Vinaigrettes fat produced the most energy. This answer,
however, refuted our hypothesis, which suggested Thousand Island to have the most fat
and produce the most energy from fat.
Table 4. Comparison between calculated and Manufacturers value.
Calculated Manufacturers
Percentage of fat
(%)
Fat cal
(kcal/g fat)
Percentage of fat
(%)
Fat cal
(kcal/g fat)
Caesar 38.5 16.9 60.0 8.89
1000 Island 9.03 16.8 43.3 9.23
Ranch 4.76 16.3 50.0 9.33
Vinaigrette 27.4 17.2 33.3 9.00

References:
1. Natural cheese Calories counter.CalorieLab. n.d. Web. n.d
2. Mayonnaise and spread Calories counter.CalorieLab. n.d. Web. n.d
3. Calories content of sauces.AlbertaRose. Anne Collins, n.d. Web. n.d
4. Carbohydrates versus Fats ClackamacCommunityCollege. Sue,E .n.d.Web.n.d.
5. How the body uses fat. Rawfoodexplained. n.d. Web. n.d.
6. Comparison of two fat extraction methods." St.LawrencesChemweb. Francois, B,
Michael,B. n.d. Web. n.d.
7. Bunce, D., Schwartz, A.T., Silberman, R., Stanitski, C., Stratton, W., Zipp, A. (Eds.).
(1994). Chemistry in Context. England: WM. C. Brown Publishers.
8. Paar Scientific Bomb Calorimetry Manual.
9. Early, Erin. A Market Evaluation of Salad Dressings .n.d.PDF file.