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.
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