This week in Biomed, we had the chance to learn about what is in our food on a deeper level compared to the aesthetics of waxing fruit from last week. We tested how much wax was on our fruits by removing it with boiling water, vinegar, and baking soda. After learning about waxes to make food more appealing, we watched Mrs. McCleery present new information about different frightening ingredients in our food that we eat everyday. Castoreum was the most humorous of all examples as we learned that a lot of our vanilla flavors and other foods come from beaver anal glands. Castoreum is safe to eat and is rated GRAS (generally recognized as safe). It can be used for many other reasons too. It is found in many fake vanilla foods, icecream, and more. We learned about how arsenic is in a lot of our food and all of our water. It is shown to be in too small amounts to be harmful for humans. Many grown foods have arsenic because it is found in the soil. The last one that stood out to me is that beetles make up Red Dye No. 4. This dye is safer than many synthetic dye, but it is still funny to think about how we eat crushed beetles. It is in cereals, condiments, sodas, fruit juices, and candies.
We never actually got to the skills lab. Instead, we presented our presentations that we were assigned. I liked Genial.ly (my own), Prezi, and Visme the best out of all the new presentations. I like how interactive Genial.ly is with quizzes, links, photos, and videos. I could see myself using that program for my presentation.
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