Extracting Iron in Cereal

Introduction:

Minerals play an important role in our dietary needs. Some minerals are metals and can be extracted in a simple lab, such as Iron. Some cereals are fortified with iron to meet 100% of the recommended daily value. In this lab students will be able to extract iron and see if the cereal contains 100% of the daily recommended value of iron.

Materials:

Total brand name cereal
Electronic scales
Mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder (the coffee grinder works best)
Weigh paper
Magnet (a strong magnet from a veterinary supply store works well - cattle magnet)
Small plastic plates
Distilled water in a squirt bottle
Oven

Procedure:

  1. Mass the magnet.
  2. Mass 30 g of Total cereal. (One serving size)
  3. Grind the cereal very fine (similar to flour)
  4. Pour the fine ground cereal onto a small plastic plate.
  5. Place one end of the magnet in the cereal and stir it around making sure that you have made contact with all of the cereal.
  6. Wash off extra cereal debris with distilled water using a squirt bottle.
  7. Place the magnet with the iron on it in an oven (100 degree C) for 2-3 minutes to dry the water.
  8. Mass the magnet with the iron. (If students have trouble with the scales since they will be weighing a small mass, they can rub the iron off on weigh paper and determine the iron content by weight difference: weigh paper + iron - weight paper.)

Reference:

Armitage, Damon. University of Arkansas. Graduate Student. 2000

Student Handout:

  1. Mass of the magnet ________.

  2. Mass of cereal _________.

  3. Mass of the magnet and the iron ___________.

  4. Mass of the iron__________.

  5. The recommend daily average for iron in an adult is 18mg. What percentage did you extract from the cereal? __________

  6. Did you obtain 100% of the iron that is claimed to be in one serving size? ______
    If not, why do think you obtained more or less than the daily requirement? Support you thoughts.







  7. What percentage of the cereal is only iron? __________

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