Food Science

Food Science is an event that has been run as a Trial Event in states such as Texas and North Carolina for quite a while. When it is run in Texas as a trial, it differs from many other states. Tentatively, the 2012 season will feature Food Science as an event for Division B but it may be slightly different according to the Trial rules. The basics are outlined below:

3 Types of Foods
The three most common categories of food are Lipids, Carbohydrates, and Proteins . In each of these categories, some subcategories exist.

Lipids
Lipids are also known as fats. They are composed of fats, fatty acids and their derivatives. There are two types of common fats: Saturated Fats and Unsaturated fats. Saturated fats are generally worse for you than unsaturated since they stack in your body due to no open Carbon bonds.

Carbohydrates
Carbs consist of starches and sugars. In this event, the most common types of sugars you have to know are monosaccharides and disaccharides. Glucose, galactose and fructose are the three most common mono. and Maltose, Sucrose, and Lactose are the most common disaccharides. Starches are long chains of (most commonly) glucose that have two forms: amylose and amylopectin.

Proteins
Proteins are polymers of amino acids. They are a source of Nitrogen in the diet and are necessary to live. Most protein rich food is eggs.

Testing
At the competition, you may be given a written test along with a lab. The most common test that you are expected to perform are '''Benedict's, Burets, Sudan IV/III, Grease Spot test, and Iodine. '''Benedict's tests for reducing sugars, Burets for proteins, Sudan and grease spot for fats and Iodine for starches. More in depth info about these test and their procedure can be found online.

This is just an overview for the event, since rules for 2012 haven't been released yet. Most of this is basic knowledge but tests can be fairly advanced.