Food Science B

[pikachu4919]

Food Science B: Students will answer questions on food chemistry with a focus on fermentation and pickling. In addition, participants will build a salinometer/hydrometer capable of measuring salt compositions between 1-10% (mass/volume).

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Past Threads:
2011 (Trial), 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017

Past Question Marathons: 2016, 2017

[Frost0125]

I don't have any experience with Food Science, and I was wondering if anyone knew of any good places to start resource-wise?

[raytay]

(I would help if I had done this event before, but alas, I haven't)
I'm a little confused on whether a calorimeter is needed this year. On the sheet from Soinc.org it doesn't state whether one is needed or not and the wiki page includes how to make one (probably from previous years but I don't exactly know.)

[Person]

(I would help if I had done this event before, but alas, I haven't)
I'm a little confused on whether a calorimeter is needed this year. On the sheet from Soinc.org it doesn't state whether one is needed or not and the wiki page includes how to make one (probably from previous years but I don't exactly know.)

It looks like participants will be building a salinometer, not a calorimeter this year.

[raytay]

(I would help if I had done this event before, but alas, I haven't)
I'm a little confused on whether a calorimeter is needed this year. On the sheet from Soinc.org it doesn't state whether one is needed or not and the wiki page includes how to make one (probably from previous years but I don't exactly know.)

It looks like participants will be building a salinometer, not a calorimeter this year.

Thank You! I'm helping some seventh graders who haven't done Science Olympiad and I didn't want to steer them wrong.

[AwersomeUser]

I don't have any experience with Food Science, and I was wondering if anyone knew of any good places to start resource-wise?

Me too. Does anyone know if there will be a power point of some sort, some videos, or sample test on the event’s page? If so, about when? Since none of these kind of things are up on the page yet, maybe I shouldn’t start studying yet?

Can someone give some advice on how to study this event efficiently? Last year, at most half of my intended studying time is actually useful. For example, when I am looking for something on YouTube, most of the videos I watch isn’t exactly what I need to help me, and then sometimes most of the time I end up watching unrelated videos.

Another thing is I spend time studying the non-important things/wrong thing/not enough. I did solar system last year and I spent too much time learning the formation of the moon, which I think only one related question was asked. Another example is I didn’t know what to put in my fossils binder. I didn’t know how much information to copy down, the entire Wikipedia page or just something’s that I think will be useful. A lot of the things I put down is just data, like “blah blah blah lived from blah to blah”, or “blah is usually blah inches long”. None of these seem to really be tested.

My question is, how do I know what to study for? One of the things that is on the rules are water activity and density. What am I suppose to study? (I know nothing about fermentation and pickling right now) Would those be in questions like, blah blah blah is a type of fermentation process used to produce blah, the density is now blah, what was the density before the process? Maybe questions like that?

[Answering just part(s) of my questions is fine]

[35368]

I have noticed that the rules don't specify much about the salinometer except the the size.
Could I get a clarification as to whether we can use an electric salinometer or not?
thx

[knightmoves]

I have noticed that the rules don't specify much about the salinometer except the the size.
Could I get a clarification as to whether we can use an electric salinometer or not?
thx

General Rule 1: It's allowed unless it's explicitly excluded, unsafe, or violates the spirit of the problem.

The rules say that you must make a salinometer/hydrometer capable of measuring salt concentrations between 1 and 10%. They don't say anything else about it's construction, therefore an electric salinometer that you built and calibrated yourself would be acceptable. I'm not sure if lithium batteries are still banned, but there's no reason to want to se a lithium battery in such a device.

[dholdgreve]

Does anyone have any thoughts on determining the moisture content of a pickle besides dehydration, then weighing the before and after?

[SPP SciO]

Does anyone have any thoughts on determining the moisture content of a pickle besides dehydration, then weighing the before and after?

I thought about this briefly - maybe density could be used as a proxy for moisture? Pickles in a saltier brine would be less dense by some factor? I'm really not sure, but the dehydration method would take hours, so there must be some quicker way the event writers had in mind. I'm hoping that a 2020 powerpoint is uploaded to soinc.org eventually.