food groups present in chemcial testina

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An experiment to discover the types of food groups present in food using chemical testing.

Introduction

Carbohydrates are organic molecules that contain 3 elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The two types of carbohydrates that are being investigated in this experiment are sugars and starches. There are three basic types of carbohydrate molecules that are form its structure, these are:

* Monosaccharides - which are single sugars.

* Disaccharides - double sugars made from two monosaccarides.

* Polysaccharides - multiple sugars (polymers of many monosaccarides).

Carbohydrates have several functions and roles within the human body, for example, starches are ideal for storage and sugar is ideal for energy. As well as being vital in structural components, a good example is connective tissue, chitin in crabs and cellulose.

Lipids or more commonly known as waxes, fats and oils are non - polar molecules. Most are insoluble in water but are soluble in non - polar solvents such as alcohol. Lipids contain several elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and sometimes nitrogen and phosphorus. When testing for lipids - food should be cut up into small pieces and mixed with pure ethanol, which is then shaken. If lipids