Candy Chromatography Lab Report

The purpose of this experiment was to highlight the process of chromatography. But why was candy chosen? Recent studies have found that certain dyes can cause hyperactivity in children and even pose certain serious health risks like cancer and tumors. Some such dyes include Yellow 5, Red 40, and Yellow 6 - dyes that are not only found in many foods but more commonly in widely consumed candies which are not normally noticed by those who eat them. By using chromatography, you can test to find out if your favorite candy contains these harmful dyes. In this lab, our hypothesis was proven for the most part. All primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) had no color change, while secondary colors (black, brown, green, purple) changed colors and had two or more dyes. The only exception to the statement was orange. While there is no orange dye, the dyes for yellow and red are so similar that there would be no change in color. Another possibility is that the dyes were not attracted to the solvent so they did not separate.

Secondary colors like green and purple resulted in multiple colors, all of which were primary colors. Predominantly red and yellow dyes were found and those dyes are the most harmful to your health. Another trend was the lack of color change in orange candy. While orange is a secondary color, for some reason no change in color resulted. The separation technique of chromatography was brought up in the first unit in Chemistry class. While it was not mentioned as frequently as filtration and distillation, after doing some research I realized chromatography is much more common. Some questions I had while doing this lab were: Why did orange stay the same color? Would using different solvents result in better data? What was the best technique to put the dye on filter paper? If thin-layer chromatography could be used would it be more