Testing Animal Protein Compared To Non-Meat Protein

Brynnan McNeill

Kyle Krichbaum, Mikayla Michael, Kayla Storm Gusky

Proteins, as defined in Nutrition and You, are compounds in your body that

consist of numerous amino acids and are found in all living cells. (Blake, Joan Salge.

Nutrition & You.) Every living thing has protein in it. The reason one needs protein in

their diet is to help growth, development, and to help a persons body repair cells and to

make new ones. (“Protein in Diet”) Proteins can primarily be found in meat, milk, eggs,

nuts, and beans. One can obtain more protein by adding more foods like these into their

diet in small portions at every meal. According to the Better Health Channel 15 to 25

percent of a persons daily diet should be protein. (Department of Health & Human

Services.)

People who consume animal proteins and other proteins regularly are called

omnivores. I based my hypothesis off of an omnivore diet which is someone who eats

both plants and meat and does not have limitations on where they get their protein from.

(“Carnivore Herbivore Omnivore.”) I wanted to see one type of meat compared to a

variety of other non-meat foods so that I could get a drastic comparison on meat to the

non-meat foods like a person of this diet would have in their everyday diet. Animal

proteins contain the most protein, so they will turn the darkest color purple when tested.

In order to text positive and negative controls my partners and I labeled three test

tubes strong positive, positive, and negative. We placed 1 ml of albumin in the strong
positive tube, 1 ml of weak albumin in the positive tube, and 1 ml of water in the

negative tube. We then added 1 ml of Buret reagent to each test tube and let them sit in

a water bath for 2 minutes. We did this so we knew what colors we were looking for

when testing foods for proteins.

We then moved on to testing the foods for proteins. We tested ginger ale, olive

oil, apple, powdered sugar, ground beef, and potato. Each food was ground up and

placed into a test tube and covered with 3-5 ml of Buret Reagent and placed in the

water bath for 2 minutes.

The strong positive turned a dark purple color, the positive turned a light purple,

and the negative turned blue. We then knew that any food that turned dark purple had a

higher amount of protein in it than light purple and the blue had the least amount.

When testing the foods we found that the ground beef had the most change and

was a strong positive. All of the other foods had no change and were negative. The

olive oil, powdered sugar, and potato turned blue and something odd happened with our

ginger ale and our apple. They turned an orange color. The ginger ale was neon orange

and the apple had a fainter color orange to it. We were not sure why this occurred but

we knew they were still negative.

Food Item Reaction Notes

Ginger Ale Neon Orange (NC) Negative

Olive Oil Blue (NC) Negative
Apple Light Orange (NC) Negative
Powdered Sugar Blue (NC) Negative
Ground Beef Dark Purple Strong Positive
 Food Item Reaction Notes
Potato Blue (NC) Negative

*NC: No Change

Based on the results gathered from this experiment, I think that animal proteins

do have the most protein in them compared to non-meat proteins. I know this because

the meat tested was a strong positive and every other food was a negative. When

looking at food labels for products tested you can see that the ginger ale has 0 grams of

protein, olive oil has 0 grams, apples have 0.5 grams, powdered sugar has 0 grams,

ground beef has 65 grams, and a potato has 4.3 grams. Based on my experiment I

would think that the potato wouldn't have any but compared to the amount the ground

beef has in it I am not surprised that it came out the way it did.

Limitations in this experiment were the food that were able to be tested. If there

were more food that are more well known for having protein in them the experiment

would have been very different. Something clearly went awry with our ginger ale and

apple turning orange, so that could have affected other areas of our experiment without

our knowing. The same thing that cause that to go wrong could have done something to

the other foods on a smaller scale. If doing this experiment again, I would choose other

foods that are known for having proteins in them and I would compare someone having

this diet to someone having a vegetarian diet and see how different the two would have

to eat in order to obtain the same amount of protein. In order to make this experiment

better I think the food should be freshly brought out, not sitting in the open air for

extended periods of time and I would have a wider variety of choices.

Blake, Joan Salge. Nutrition & You. Pearson, 2017.
“Carnivore Herbivore Omnivore.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the

Interior, www.nps.gov/npsa/learn/education/classrooms/carnivore-herbivore-

omnivore.htm.

Department of Biological Sciences WSU. (2016). Biology 1050: Food Biology

Laboratory Manual. Wright State University: Hayden-McNeill, LLC.

Department of Health & Human Services. “Protein.” Better Health Channel, Department

of Health & Human Services, 30 Sept. 2014,

www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/protein.

“Protein in Diet.” MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia,

medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002467.htm.

“Welcome.” Welcome | Nutrition.gov, www.nutrition.gov/.