Search for Science Fair Projects

1000 Science Fair Projects with Complete Instructions

Food Science Science Fair Project

Cooking Oil Saturated Fat and the Iodine Test

Medium
Cooking Oil Saturated Fat and the Iodine Test | Science Fair Projects | STEM Projects
Which cooking oil in your kitchen has the most saturated fat? You can find out with iodine and a stopwatch. Iodine reacts with unsaturated fats and loses its purple color. The faster the color disappears, the more unsaturated fat the oil contains. You add three drops of iodine to test tubes filled with five different oils: peanut, canola, corn, soya bean, and olive. Then you time how long the purple color takes to clear. Peanut oil takes the longest at 38 seconds. Canola oil clears in just 12 seconds. The clearing time lines up with each oil's known saturated fat percentage.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis is that peanut oil will have the highest proportion of saturated fat, and when the iodine test is performed, will require the longest time to lose its purple color.

Method & Materials

You will clean the test tubes, label them according to the oils used for testing, measure 20ml of each type of oil, and drip 3 drops of iodine into the first test tube. Start the stopwatch immediately and record the time taken for the purple color of the iodine to disappear.
You will need 1 bottle of peanut oil, 1 bottle of canola oil, 1 bottle of corn oil, 1 bottle of soya bean oil, 1 bottle of olive oil, 5 test tubes, 1 test tube stand, 1 eyedropper, 1 bottle of iodine, 1 stopwatch, and 1 measuring cylinder.

MEL Chemistry — monthly chemistry experiment kits delivered to your door. (Affiliate link)

See whats included

Results

The results showed that the iodine and peanut oil mixture took the longest to revert to the original color, while the canola oil took the shortest amount of time. The hypothesis was proven to be true, as peanut oil has the highest saturated fat content and the lowest proportion of unsaturated fat among the 5 types of cooking oil tested.

Why do this project?

This science project is interesting because it shows how different types of cooking oil can affect our health. It also demonstrates how the iodine test can be used to measure the amount of saturated fat in different types of oil.

Also Consider

Variations of this experiment could include testing different types of oils like oil palm, coconut oil or sunflower oil. Another variation could be to measure the amount of iodine required for all the unsaturated fat in the oil to react.

Full project details

Additional information and source material for this project are available below.

Related videos

These videos explain the science behind this project and demonstrate key concepts used in the experiment.
Share this Science Project:

Related Science Fair Project Ideas

Pre-Soaked Spaghetti and Cooking Time
Soak spaghetti in water for a few hours, then boil it for just one minute to test whether pre-soaking cuts cooking time.
Medium
Sugar Crystallization and Rock Candy
Grow giant sugar crystals on a string and watch a supersaturated solution turn back into solid rock candy.
Medium
Cooking and Vitamin C in Fruit
Test raw and cooked tomatoes and cherries with an iodine solution to discover whether cooking destroys or concentrates vitamin C.
Medium
Share this Science Project: