Samantha
Grade 5
Texas, U.S.
Samantha presented her project before a group of science fair judges at her school.
She won 1st Place out of 15 Life Science Projects. She then moved to the area science fair.
Question: Do food products have DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and can DNA be extracted
for food products found in the common kitchen?
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Materials
1 onion
1 broccoli
1 okra
1 banana
salt
dishwashing soap
meat tenderizer
rubbing alcohol
warm water
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coffee filter paper
wooden toothpicks
knife and chopping board
strainer
blender
glass containers
measuring cups and spoons
Microscope or magnifying glass
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Procedure
- Break the onion, broccoli, banana, and okra up into small pieces. Place one kitchen product into the blender for
each experiment.
- Stir 1-teaspoon of salt into 1-cup of water. Pour the water into the blender with the kitchen product and
chop for about 5 seconds.
- Transfer the mixture into t small glass container (about 50 ml), add 2-tablespoons of detergent and mix with a
wooden toothpick for 5 minutes. This will break up the cell membrane.
- Using the coffee filter, strain about 50 ml of liquid.
- Add 1/8 of a teaspoon of meat tenderizer (an enzyme) and gently stir the mixture with a toothpick for another five
minutes to remove the protein.
- Slowly pour in an amount of alcohol to equal the amount of mixture (about 50 ml).
- The alcohol will form a layer on top of the cell debris, and the DNA will come through the alcohol.
- Stir the alcohol layer carefully with the toothpick.
- The clear, snotty substance is the DNA.
- Examine the DNA under a microscope or magnifying glass.
Findings
Following the procedures for the experiment, I found that I was able to get some DNA material from most of the products.
I was not able to get any from the okra. I don't know if this was because the okra was frozen or because it is just more
difficult to work with. Next time I would try to get DNA from all fresh products because I thing that freezing them had
an affect on extracting the DNA.
I compared my results with those I found on the internet. I believe that what I found is actually DNA from these
products.
DNA does exist in common kitchen products and can be extracted through a simple kitchen lab experiment.
Conclusions: DNA does exist in food products and can be extracted from food products found in the common
kitchen.
Isolate DNA material from food and vegetables found in your refrigerator! The
DNA Isolation Kit makes experimentation easy.
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