Editorial pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Teaching about Chemistry Related to Food Norbert J. Pienta* Department of Chemistry, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, United States ABSTRACT: The American Chemical Society theme for Earth Day 2017 is Chemistry Feeds the World. The potential role of chemical educators in providing students with content and context concerning the importance of food and chemistry is discussed. KEYWORDS: Public Understanding/Outreach, General Public, Food Science
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might take, the story of how various genetic traits of corn are developed is worth telling to students. Indeed, the telling of that story is one chapter in the ACS textbook for nonscience majors, Chemistry in Context: Applying Chemistry to Society,3 and has also been addressed in this Journal.4−6 There are advantages to chemists and other scientists presenting basic, factual information rather than depending on the vagaries of the Google search and hearsay, as these chefs may have. Food and food chemistry have been part of this Journal since its inception. Thus, a search for “food chemistry” yields ca. 350 citations, and related queries provide a broad range of content and context. For example, a review article in volume 77 by Erica Jacobsen outlines and summarizes the food chemistry resources available in JCE through 2000.7 Topics from just the last year demonstrate the breadth of ideas and applications: phase changes while melting chocolate;8 azo dyes in everyday foods;9 graphical representations of food groups;10 arsenic in apple juice;11 supercritical CO2 extraction of natural ingredients;12 and an analysis of kombucha fermentation.13 Additional external resources such as the popular book by Harold McGee provide extensive insight into the chemistry associated with cooking and food preparation.14 Teach your students to appreciate the chemistry of food.15−17
ach year the American Chemical Society selects a theme for Chemists Celebrate Earth Day (CCED); for April 22, 2017, the selection is Chemistry Helps Feed the World.1 Those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere and other affluent parts of the world hardly think about getting enough to eat; most people in this group are likely confounded by the choices we have, not whether we have enough to eat. Early in my professional career in the 1980s, a colleague at the University of Arkansas hosted visiting scientists from Poland as part of his collaborative research efforts. A married couple, both Ph.D. chemists, visited Fayetteville separately as was the custom, apparently to minimize a migration of such scientists from preSolidarity Poland. (Solidarity was the first trade union founded in 1980 in the shipyards of Gdansk and a symbol of the growing independence in that country.2) Although her experiences were not witnessed personally, this Polish colleague recounted her first visit to a local grocery store. She stopped in the meat aisle, transfixed by what she saw and then angered by what it meant. The coolers were full, and there were no lines of customers competing to get their share. She had been deceived, told that even Americans had limited choices and quantity. However, the aisle in the humble Piggly Wiggly in the small college town of Fayetteville proved otherwise. Aside from exceptions related to social-justice issues and whether one is a vegetarian or omnivore, there is relative abundance. A recent conversation overheard between two line chefs from a nearby fine-dining establishment brings the focus closer to educational topics. (Background for readers: The Web site for ACS CCED1 contains a design that has an ear of corn representing the letter “i” in “chemistry”. As a former 13-year resident of the state of Iowa and faculty member at the University of Iowa, I have learned a few things along the way about corn in a state that leads the country in its production. Now let us resume with the conversation of the chefs.) One chef was bemoaning the demise of corn as a vegetable (i.e., people food) because genetically modified (GM) corn had ruined it all. The problem with that assertion is that >99% of corn production (including GMO types) is “dent” corn, not the tender, sweet kernels of summertime enjoyment. In contrast to the kernels that people eat, the harder dent version (also called maize) is used extensively for livestock feed, ethanol production, and other applications. GMO types of corn have been bred for resistance to pests and to herbicides and for optimizing its various uses (e.g., higher sugar content). Independent of what side of the GMO controversy one © 2017 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Norbert J. Pienta: 0000-0002-1197-6151 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS. Norbert J. Pienta is Professor and Director of General Chemistry at the University of Georgia, where he teaches and conducts research and scholarship about the teaching and learning of chemistry, devising methods, instruments, and analytics to characterize student learning and increase student success. He currently also serves as the editor-in-chief for the Journal of Chemical Education. Published: April 11, 2017 401
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00206 J. Chem. Educ. 2017, 94, 401−402
Journal of Chemical Education
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Editorial
REFERENCES
(1) For information about Chemists Celebrate Earth Day 2017, see: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/outreach/cced.html (accessed March 2017). (2) For a discussion of Solidarity (Solidarnośc)́ , see: https://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_(Polish_trade_union) (accessed March 2017). (3) Chemistry in Context: Applying Chemistry to Society, 8th ed.; McGraw-Hill: New York, 2015. (4) Pöpping, B. Are You Ready for [a] Roundup?What Chemistry Has to Do with Genetic Modifications. J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78 (6), 752−756. (5) Taylor, A.; Sajan, S. Testing for Genetically Modified Foods Using PCR. J. Chem. Educ. 2005, 82 (4), 597−598. (6) Swope, N. K.; Fryfogle, P. J.; Sivy, T. L. Detection of the cp4 epsps Gene in Maize Line NK603 and Comparison of Related Protein Structures: An Advanced Undergraduate Experiment. J. Chem. Educ. 2015, 92 (7), 1229−1232. (7) Jacobsen, E. K. National Chemistry Week 2000: JCE Resources in Food Chemistry. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77 (10), 1256−1267. (8) Smith, M. J. Using Differential Scanning Calorimetry To Explore the Phase Behavior of Chocolate. J. Chem. Educ. 2016, 93 (5), 898− 902. (9) Tami, K.; Popova, A.; Proni, G. Engaging Students in Real-World Chemistry through Synthesis and Confirmation of Azo Dyes via Thin Layer Chromatography To Determine the Dyes Present in Everyday Foods and Beverages. J. Chem. Educ. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/ acs.jchemed.6b00334. (10) Ferreira, J. E. V.; Miranda, R. M.; Figueiredo, A. F.; Barbosa, J. P.; Brasil, E. M. Box-and-Whisker Plots Applied to Food Chemistry. J. Chem. Educ. 2016, 93 (12), 2026−2032. (11) He, P.; Colon, L. A.; Aga, D. A. Determination of Total Arsenic and Speciation in Apple Juice by Liquid Chromatography−Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry: An Experiment for the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory. J. Chem. Educ. 2016, 93 (11), 1939−1944. (12) Bodsgard, B. R.; Lien, N. R.; Waulters, Q. T. Liquid CO2 Extraction and NMR Characterization of Anethole from Fennel Seed: A General Chemistry Laboratory. J. Chem. Educ. 2016, 93 (2), 397− 400. (13) Miranda, B.; Lawton, N. M.; Tachibana, S. R.; Swartz, N. A.; Hall, W. P. Titration and HPLC Characterization of Kombucha Fermentation: A Laboratory Experiment in Food Analysis. J. Chem. Educ. 2016, 93 (10), 1770−1775. (14) McGee, H. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen; Simon and Schuster: New York, 2004. (15) Mitchell, S. B. Experimenting with the Sweet Side of Chemistry: Connecting Students and Science through Food Chemistry. J. Chem. Educ. 2014, 91 (10), 1509−1510. (16) Bell, P. Design of a Food Chemistry-Themed Course for Nonscience Majors. J. Chem. Educ. 2014, 91 (10), 1631−1636. (17) Miles, D. T.; Borchardt, A. C. Laboratory Development and Lecture Renovation for a Science of Food and Cooking Course. J. Chem. Educ. 2014, 91 (10), 1637−1642.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00206 J. Chem. Educ. 2017, 94, 401−402
