SCI PROJ: MSG and total Sodium levels in canned food

GamaChan

2 Feb 13, 13:50

Hi people, thanks for your time.

So basically I'm doing a Science project (Sec 2) where we're testing for MSG and total Sodium levels in canned food.

We'll be using HPLC to test, but the thing about being Sec 2 is that we have no idea how to use it. Our teachers expect us to do research on our own, but everything we've found so far are just scientific jargon.

Anyone who can help? Science Elementz students, JC/Poly specialist students or practically anyone who knows how to explain the process of testing MSG and Sodium with HPLC are welcome!! PLEASE HELP >< I'm being pressurized to finish it by tomorrow ><

I really need this by today or at the latest tomorrow ><

Thanks in advance!!

Chemguide7

3 Feb 13, 15:00

HPLC is a university year two topic. It is not easy to explain the concepts to Sec 2 students. BTW, do you have any research mentors to guide you into doing the experiments? If not, then this project is unsuitable for Sec 2 to do it. A very mickey mouse way of explaining it is that you have a mixture, you pass the mixture into a HPLC, then the mixture will be separated into its various components by using some solvent, then you pass maybe one of the component into a mass sorter (mass spectrometer) and you find out how many % of the weight in the mixture is due to the weight of MSG. You get some computer print-outs. There are many variations and technical details in HPLC. Regards.

Chemguide7

3 Feb 13, 15:02

A very primitive way is to use your taste buds and do a taste test eg. which brand of luncheon meat is more salty. But this is more appropriate for P5 students and is inaccurate.

SBS n SMRT

5 Feb 13, 21:02

I don't think you will be asked to run HPLC / know the technicalities

Just know that HPLC is a separation technique which will help us identify compounds

(Sincerely speaking I am a H3 Proteomics Student in JC and that's all is required, full stop)

So that's a little too over for you