SUBJECT: BIOLOGY UNIT 1

SCHOOL: PRESENTATION COLLEGE SAN FERNANDO

GROUP MEMBERS: JEREL BARZEY

D’NEIL BABOOLAL

ADRIAN CHARAN

GIAN-MARC ASSON

NICHOLAS SAUNDERS

JORDAN MUNGAL

TITLE: A&I

HYPOTHESIS: FRUIT JUICES THAT HAVE 100%

PURE JUICE HAVE LESS SUGAR CONTENT THAN SOFT

DRINKS THAT HAVE ADDED SUGARS.

SITUATION:

The Ministry of Education has put a ban on soft drinks in school cafeterias due to their high

sugar content. They state that only 100% juices should be sold. Ms. Mohammed says that other

drinks are sold in the cafeterias that are just as sweet as fruit juices or soft drinks. Plan, design

and carry out an experiment to validate the Ministry’s band.

HYPOTHESIS:

Fruit juices that have 100% pure juice have less sugar content than soft drinks that have added

sugars.

AIM:

To investigate the sugar concentration of 100% fruit juices in contrast to soft drinks that are

being sold in the school cafeteria.

APPARATUS:

1. 1 Cream Soda Solo

2. 1 Minute Maid Apple (100% juice)

3. 1 Orchard apple juice (100% juice)

4. Water

5. Beaker for water bath

6. 4 smaller beakers for water (control),minute maid apple juice, orchard apple juice and

soft drink

7. 4 Syringes

8. Benedict’s reagent
 9. Electric heater

10. 4 Boiling tubes for water (control), minute maid apple juice, orchard apple juice and soft

drink

11. Paper

12. Pencil

13. Test tube rack

METHOD:

1. A water bath was set up with beaker and electric heater.

2. The minute maid apple juice was poured into a beaker.

3. Syringe was used to obtain 10cm3 of minute maid apple juice from beaker.

4. 10cm3 of minute maid apple juice was poured into boiling tube.

5. The orchard apple juice was poured into another beaker.

6. Syringe was used to obtain 10cm3 of orchard apple juice from beaker.

7. 10cm3 of orchard apple juice was poured into another beaker.

8. The soft drink was poured into another beaker.

9. Syringe was used to obtain 10cm3 of soft drink from beaker.

10. 10cm3 of soft drink was poured into another boiling tube

11. Water was poured into another beaker.

12. Syringe was used to obtain 10cm3 of water from beaker (to be used as control of

experiment).

13. 10cm3 of water was poured into another boiling tube.

14. 10cm3 of Benedict’s reagent was added to each boiling tube at the same time.
 15. Boiling tubes were placed immediately immediately into water bath and the tubes were

left there for 2 minutes.

16. Colour changes were observed and recorded.

17. After 2 minutes, boiling tubes were taken out out of water bath and placed on test tube

rack.

18. Precipitates were allowed to settle completely for 24 hours and the height of the

precipitates was measured.

VARIABLES:

Controlled:

1. Volume of solutions used

2. Size of test tubes

3. Time for reaction in water bath

4. Volume of Benedict’s solution used.

Manipulated:

1. Types of drinks

Responding:

1. Colour change of solutions

2. Height of precipitates
EXPECTED RESULTS:

Type of Drink Precipitate Height Colour Change

(cm)

Minute Maid Apple Juice 1.6 Blue to green to yellow to

(100% juice) orange to a dark brick-red
precipitate
Nestle Orchard Apple Juice 1.8 Blue to green to yellow to
(100% juice) orange to very dark brick-
red precipitate
Cream Soda Solo 1.5 Blue to green to yellow to
orange to a light brick-red
precipitate
Water 0.0 No colour change observed

TABLE SHOWING PRECIPITATE HEIGHT AND COLOUR CHANGE FOR DRINK AFTER

BENEDICT’S TEST WAS PREFORMED

DIAGRAM SHOWING NUTRIONAL FACTS OF CREAM SODA SOLO
DIAGRAM SHOWING NUTRIONAL FACTS OF MINUTE MAID APPLE JUCE
DIAGRAM SHOWING ORCHARD APPLE JUICE
CALCULATIONS:

Minute Maid Apple Juice:

In 473ml, there is 55g of sugar.

55
In 1ml, there is 473g of sugar.

55
Therefore in 250ml, there is 473g × 250ml = 29.07𝑔 of sugar.

Nestle Orchard Apple Juice

Serving size =250ml, so in 250ml there is 18g of sugar.

But this is for a 1.5 serving

If a 1.5 serving = 18 g of sugar

Then a 1.0 serving = 1.5 × 36

=27g of sugar

Cream Sola Solo Soft Drink:

Serving Size = 250ml, so in 250ml there is 36g of sugar.

But this is for a 1.5 serving

If a 1.5 serving = 36 g of sugar

Then a 1.0 serving = 1.5 × 36

=24g of sugar
DISCUSSION:

In this experiment the sugar concentrations of juice being sold in the cafeterias of schools and

soft drinks that has been banned from schools across the country. Therefore an investigation was

conducted by performing the Benedict’s test for reducing sugars.

When testing the drinks, the Benedict’s test was carried out on 10cm3 of water, so that water

could be used as the controlled factor for the experiment since no reaction would occur because

water is not a reducing sugar. This test begins with adding of the minute maid apple juice sample

into the test tube and then adding of equal volume of Benedict’s solution into the same test tube.

The test tube was shaken and placed in a boiling water bath. Then observed the colour changes to

occur and it was recorded. This same process was repeated but instead with the orchard apple

juice and then a soft drink sample. Colour changes for the 100% minute maid apple juice,

orchard apple juice and the soft drink were from blue to green to yellow to orange to a brick-red

precipitate. However, the brick-red precipitate of the minute maid and orchard apple juice was of

a greater intensity than the precipitate of the soft drink, inferring that there is a greater reducing

sugar content present in the minute maid and orchard apple juice than the soft drink. However,

the orchard apple juice had the darkest brick red precipitate, indicating that it had the most

amount of reducing sugar present, while the minute maid apple had a dark brick-red precipitate

and the soft drink had a light brick-red precipitate. The water did not have any precipitate. When
comparing height of the precipitates of the minute maid and orchard apple juice and soft drink,

the orchard had the largest precipitate height (1.8cm) while the soft drink had the smallest

precipitate height (1.5cm), inferring that the soft drink contains the least sugar content while the

orchard apple juice had the most sugar content. The precipitate of the minute maid and orchard

apple juice was of stronger colour intensity and larger height than the soft drink precipitate

which was of weaker colour intensity and smaller height.

Benedict’s test was chosen because the sugars in both drinks were reducing sugars, even though

it was not stated on the nutritional labels. Since the Minute Maid Apple and Orchard apple juice

is 100% pure juice, it is assumed that it contains reducing sugar. Benedict’s solution contains

copper sulphate. Reducing sugars reduce soluble blue copper sulphate, containing copper (II)

ions (Cu2+) to insoluble red-brown copper oxide containing copper (l) ions (Cu+) which form a

brick red precipitate.

Ministry of Education wants to ban soft drinks due to fact of its high sugar concentrations. They

believe that due to the high amounts of sugar in these drinks are linked to the cause of the

teenagers being prone to obesity as well as diabetes. The recommended sugar requirement for

teenagers is less than 25g of sugar per day. Shockingly, 250ml of Cream Soda there is 36g of

sugar, while 250ml of Minute Maid apple juice contains 29.07g of sugar; both are above the

recommended daily amount for teenagers. The orchard apple juice is stated to have 18g of sugar

in 250ml, which is surprisingly below the recommended value. Even though the minute maid

apple juice is ‘100%’ apple juice, it still contains more than the recommended daily requirements

for teenagers. There are drinks that claim to have 100% juice and flavoured water but in reality

these drinks are just around or near to the amount of sugar concentrations of soft drinks. This
experiment was performed to prove if this was true or false about juices/flavoured water have

just as high sugar concentrations as soft drinks.

Therefore the both tests were performed and produced the same colour changes, blue to green to

yellow to orange to brick red. However when left to settle, the precipitate of the 100% orchard

apple juice was 1.8cm, while the minute maid apple juice was recorded to be 1.7 cm in height

and the precipitate of the soft drink produced was recorded as 1.5 cm in height.

As a result of these tests performed, it is a fact that the Orchard apple juice contains the most

sugar, while the Minute Maid 100% apple juice contains more sugar than the cream soda Solo

soft drink and based on these observations, the hypothesis is rejected.

LIMITATIONS:

1. The uncontrolled temperature of the lab to carry of Benedict’s test in water bath could

have affected results.

2. Colour blindness may have caused inaccurate observations and recordings.

PRECAUTIONS:

1. A test tube holder was used when removing the test tubes from the hot water bath.

2. Solutions and measurements were poured and taken at eye level, to avoid inaccurate

measurements.

3. A safe distance was kept away from the heat of the burner.

4. Apparatus was handled with caution and care to avoid hazard.

 5. Beakers were washed before using again to avoid contamination.

SOURCES OF ERROR:

1. Air bubbles in syringes may have resulted in parallax error.

2. The carbonic acid in soft drink may have restricted the Benedict’s reagent.

3. The colour change of both drinks may have been the same, making it hard to differentiate

the higher concentration initially.

CONCLUSION:

The aim of this project was to investigate the sugar concentration of 100% fruit juices in

contrast to soft drinks that are being sold in the school cafeteria. Reducing sugars test were

carried out on the fruit juice and soft drink simultaneously and colour changes were observed as

well as precipitate height when it settled. Both solutions were initially blue in colour. The

colour changes observed for both the fruit juice and the soft drink where green to yellow to

orange to deep orange. The solutions were then left to settle for one (1) day and then the

precipitate height was recorded. The precipitate height of the cream soda solo was 1.5cm while

the precipitate height of the minute made was 1.6cm and the orchard was 1.8.. The Ministry of
Education’s ban would have to be rejected because from the experiment it can be said that some

juices have higher sugar concentrations than soft drinks.

REFLECTION:

The Benedict’s test is used to test for simple carbohydrates which can either be reducing

(monosaccharaides) or non-reducing sugars (disaccharides). The Benedict’s test is used in food

production and is important in society for the population to test the claims on nutrition labels of

various products to be nutritional facts that they consume; of being ‘sugar free’. Many

companies lie or hide nutritional facts therefore verifying the amount of sugar that is vital to help

make healthy choices and reduce dietary sugar. This lab could have been improved by

preforming tests on different brands of soft drinks and juices, and compare them to see which

brand is better than the other.