Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

Table of Contents:
Purpose ……………………………………………………………….…………………...Page # 3

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

Hypothesis ..……………………………………………………………..……………..….Page # 4

Materials ………………………………………………………………………………..….Page #5

Procedure ..………………………………………………………………...………….…..Page # 6

Background Research ………………………...………………...……………………..….Page # 8

Results …………………………………………………..…..…………………………...Page # 12

Conclusion ……………………………………………………..………………………..Page # 14

Reference List …………………………………………………...…...………...………..Page # 15

Purpose:

The purpose of this experiment is to measure the amount of vitamin C that is in different

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

apples that are sold at different stores. This will show whether or not if the vitamin C levels in an

apple vary depending on where they’re grown, shipped to, and how long they’ve been away from

the tree they were harvested off of.

Hypothesis:

If the vitamin C levels in an apple are different between the three that are being tested,

then it shows that apples have different vitamin C levels based on where they came from. This is

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

because different stores across the globe all get their fruits, vegetables, foods, etc. from all

different places so if the vitamin C levels are different then it shows that the origin affects the

vitamin C in an apple.

Materials:

1. 3 Apples (Each one has to be from a different grocery store)

2. About 50 drops of Iodine (*may be more or less)

3. 1 Kitchen Scale

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

4. 1 1000mg Vitamin C tablet

5. 1 Dropper or Pipette

6. 1 tablespoon of Corn Flour

7. 1 Liter Measuring cup

8. 1 5mL syringe

9. Warm Water

10. 5 Disposable Cups

11. Kitchen Grater

Procedure:

1. First, you need to make the starch solution. To do this you need one tablespoon of corn

flour and put it into a disposable cup with 100 mL of warm water. Stir the solution and let

it cool.

2. Once the solution is cooled, in another container, measure out 1 Liter of water. In this

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

container you want to drop 1 vitamin C tablet into the container and let it dissolve.

3. Next, you take another disposable cup and add 100mL of water to it.

4. Take 10mL from the vitamin C solution and transfer it over to the 100mL of water cup.

5. Then take 5mL from the starch solution and transfer it over to the same cup that you

transferred the 10mL of vitamin C too.

6. Now take a pipet and the iodine and transfer drops of iodine into your new solution. Keep

on adding drops of iodine and stirring until the solution turns into a consistent black/blue

color. Make sure to count the drops of iodine it took to reach that color.

7. After the solution is finished, take one of the apples and cut off 10 grams of it.

8. With that 10 grams of the apple, grate it all. After grating, transfer to a disposable cup.

(Make sure to get all of the shredded apple into the cup)

9. Then add 100mL of water to the cup with the grated apples.

10. Next, take 5 mL of the starch solution made in step #1 and transfer it to the cup with the

shredded apples and stir for one minute.

11. Strain the solution leaving the pulp in the cup and pouring the liquid of the solution into

another disposable cup.

12. In the cup with the liquid apple solution add drops of iodine until the solution reaches the

same black/blue color as in step #7. Make sure to count the drops of iodine it took to

reach that color.

13. Now that you have your solution, you can put the data into the table.

14. Redo Steps #7-#13 two more times but with the other two apples to find the level of

vitamin C in milligrams per grams of apple.

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

Review of Literature:

How much vitamin C is in apples? Does the amount of vitamin C in apples vary between

where it is purchased from? In order to find answers to these questions and many more like them,

one must try and find out whether or not vitamin C levels vary between different store bought

apples. Before doing that though, it is important that certain things are researched in order to gain

information about items in the project. These things include: apples, how and where apples are

grown, vitamin C, vitamin C in apples, and whether or not different apples from different store

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

locations have different amounts of vitamin C.

Apples:

The apple has been around for many centuries. Starting in Central Asia, around the Black

Sea and the Capsian Sea, the apple has travelled long and far to where it is now today. From

Asia, apples have travelled to Europe around the early 12th century. From Europe, it has been

said that when Jamestown was founded in 1607, the Europeans had brought over apple seeds

North America. With their exploration of North America, the Europeans had begun cultivating

apples along with many other crops. But back in the 1600’s, apples weren’t used for eating,

apples were actually used to make cider.

Before today’s time, apples weren’t as flavorful and colorful as we see them. Back then,

apples were bitter and not as colorful. (Synan, 2013) Between the 1600’s and today’s time, over

7,000 different varieties of apples have been discovered or made! Out of that 7,000, about 2,500

varieties are grown in the United States. Apples come in colors of red, yellow, and green. Apples

are an important and valued fruit to our society. (University of Illinois Extension, 2019)

Apples have a lot of fiber and vitamin C and are low in fat and sodium. This makes

apples really healthy for humans to eat. They also include some health benefits, they include:

protecting heart damage, slower digestion, lower chances of type 2 diabetes, and decrease a

person's chances of getting cancer. (Nordqvist, 2017) Apples are really good to eat, not only for

the health benefits, but also for their sweet or sour taste!

How and Where Apples are Grown:

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

Apples are grown simply by planting apple seeds into the ground and giving them the

right amount of sunlight and water. These seeds begin to germinate, root, sprout, and then grow.

Apple seeds grow into trees that can reach anywhere between 10 feet to 30 feet tall and 10 feet

wide. It could take up to 4 to 5 years for an apple tree to begin producing apples. Once they

begin producing apples, it may take about 3 to 5 months for the apples to ripen up and be ready

for harvest. (Albert, 2019)

Vitamin C:

Vitamin C is a vitamin that is found in many foods, more specifically fruits and

vegetables. Vitamin C is something our body’s need to stay live and perform the many functions

it does on a daily basis. Some things vitamin C does for our bodies is: repair our bodies tissues,

produce neurotransmitters, and delays the creation of certain diseases, cancers, or even stress-

related diseases. This shows that vitamin C does a lot for our bodies. It is recommended that

people ages 14 and older intake between 65 milligrams and 80 milligrams of vitamin C to

support the body and help it perform the functions vitamin C aids it with. (National Institutes of

Health, 2019)

Vitamin C doesn’t only come in foods, but it also comes in a pill form. This is just in case

someone may need more vitamin C in their bodies than others or they’re not taking in enough

vitamin C to help their bodies. Humans have to rely on other sources to give them vitamin C

because the human body cannot produce or store vitamin C. (Medline Plus, 2019) This means

that vitamin C is a really important thing in someone’s diet. People should make sure that

vitamin C is incorporated into their everyday diets.

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

Vitamin C and Apples:

Even though apples may not have a lot of vitamin C in them, it’s important to know that

there is still some inside an apple. For an apple that weighs about 100 grams, about 5% of that

apple is vitamin C (USDA, 2019). Eating an apple a day won’t exactly keep the doctor away, but

it will give a person a decent portion of vitamin C that they may need for the day for their body.

Along with vitamin C, apples also contain: fibers, carbs, protein, sugars, and so many other

things that could help the human body thrive.

Is Vitamin C the Only Thing That is Affected?

Testing just to see whether or not location of where an apple is bought affects the

vitamin C the apple contains is an important thing for consumers. Some consumers may rely on

apples or any of fruit/vegetables to give them the proper vitamins and minerals they may need to

continue functioning properly. If location does affect the vitamin C in an apple, this could do a

lot. This may lead to wondering whether or not if only vitamin C is affected when getting from

the field to our tables. If an apple is possibly able to lose vitamin C overtime away from its tree,

who says that there aren’t other things that the apple may be losing?

How Vitamin C is Measured in Apples:

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

Vitamin C is measured in apples by using vitamin C tablets, iodine, corn flour, and of

course the fruit that is being tested for its levels of vitamin C. The vitamin C reduces iodine to

iodide which makes the vitamin C (ascorbic acid) into dehydroascorbic acid. Only corn flour (the

starch) could show the iodine present. (Page, 2013) This means that we can measure the amount

of vitamin C with the given amount of drops of iodine that are used in a solution made up of

vitamin C, corn flour, apple, and iodine. This then could be used to help measure in this

experiment which apple from what location has what level of vitamin C.

Results:

Calibration Table: Measurement: Variable:

Mass of Vitamin C in Tablet: 1,000 mg A

Volume of Water Added to Vitamin C Solution: 1,000 cm3 B

Mass of Vitamin C per cm3 of Calibration: 1 A÷B=C

Volume of Small Measure (Step #4): 10 cm3 D

Mass of Vitamin C in Small Measure: 10 mg C×D=E

Drops of Iodine Added: 35 drops F

Mass of Vitamin C per Drop of Iodine: .35 mg/drop E÷F=G

Apple #1 (Jewel Osco): Measurement: Variable:

Mass of Food Used: 10 g A1

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

Drops of Iodine Added: 4 drops B1

Drops of Iodine per gram of Food: 0.4 g/drop A1÷B1 = C1

Mass of Vitamin C in Milligram per Gram of .14 mg/g C1×G = D1

Food:

Apple #2 (Pete’s Fresh Market): Measurement: Variable:

Mass of Food Used: 10 g A2

Drops of Iodine Added: 6 drops B2

Drops of Iodine per gram of Food: 0.6 g/drop A2÷B2 = C2

Mass of Vitamin C in Milligram per Gram of .21 mg/g C2×G = D2

Food:

Apple #3 (Mariano’s): Measurement: Variable:

Mass of Food Used: 10 g A3

Drops of Iodine Added: 3 drops B3

Drops of Iodine per gram of Food: 0.3 g/drop A3÷B3 = C3

Mass of Vitamin C in Milligram per Gram of .105 mg/g C3×G = D3

Food:

Data Chart:

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

Conclusion:

This experiment tested whether or not an apple’s location in which it was bought from

affected the amount of Vitamin C it contained. The hypothesis predicted that apple’s from

different grocery stores would indeed have different vitamin C levels and the experiment

supported that prediction. The experiment and the results showed that the three different apples

all had different amounts of vitamin C in milligrams per gram of each apple. This could have

been because of where each apple was grown could have affected this. The research states that

different stores get their apples from different farmers that are located in different spots in the

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

United States. Because of that, the vitamin C in the apple could have been lost between the time

it was harvested off the tree to the time it was put into our mouths.

This experiment could have been a little more effective and exact, but there were a few

variables that could have affected the results of the experiment. Some of that includes: the weight

of each apple, shipping time from farm to store, condition of apple, type of iodine solution, etc.

Overall, there were just a few things that could have been improved on to make the experiment

more better. Next time, it would be better to have a larger pool of data to get results from along

with making sure each apple weighed the same or close to the same amount.

Bibliography:

● Albert, S. (2019, January 8). How to Plant, Grow, Prune, and Harvest Apples. Retrieved

````from https://harvesttotable.com/how_to_grow_apples/.

● Medline Plus. (2019, November 6). Vitamin C: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia.

````Retrieved from https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002404.htm.

● National Institutes of Health. (2019, July 9). Office of Dietary Supplements - Vitamin C.

````Retrieved from https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminC-HealthProfessional/.

● Nordqvist, J. (2017, April 11). Apples: Health benefits, facts, research. Retrieved from

````https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/267290.php.

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 Trotta: Does an Apple’s Store Bought Location Affect its Level of Vitamin C?

● Page, L. (2013, November 16). Global Experiment 2013: Measuring vitamin C in food.

````Retrieved from https://edu.rsc.org/download?ac=13803.

● Synan, M. (2013, September 13). All About Apples. Retrieved from

````https://www.history.com/news/all-about-apples.

● University of Illinois Extension. (2019). Apple Facts. Retrieved from

````https://web.extension.illinois.edu/apples/facts.cfm.

● USDA. (2019, April 1). FoodData Central Search Results. Retrieved from

````https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171688/nutrients.

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