Ash Content Discussion

Ash content is a measure of the total amount of minerals present within a food.
The higher the

ash content, the higher the minerals content in the food. Ash is the inorganic residue remaining
after the water and organic matter have been removed by heating in the presence of oxidizing
agents, which provides mineral content, a measure of the total amount specific inorganic
components within a food. The ash content of each food will be different due to the different
mineral content in each food and the origin of the food.
This experiment was held mainly to determine ash content in food product through ashing
procedure. Generally, there are two types of ashing procedures which are, wet ashing and dry
ashing. Dry ashing refers to the use of a muffle furnace capable of maintaining temperatures of
500–600◦C. Water and volatiles are vaporized, and organic substances are burned in the
presence of oxygen in air to CO2 and oxides of N2. Meanwhile, wet ashing is a procedure for
oxidizing organic substances by using acids and oxidizing agents or their combinations. Nitric,
hydrochloric, or perchloric acid is used where perchloric acid requires use of a special hood.
Wet oxidation with perchloric acid is extremely dangerous since the perchloric acid has a
tendency to explode. Therefore, for this experiment we implemented the dry ashing procedure.
For instance, the sample of my group is cream crackers. Two empty and cool crucibles were
weighed and recorded. The cream crackers were grind using the porcelain mortar and pestle.
The crucibles were filled with two grams of the sample. Then, the dried samples were char
gently over at Bunsen burner until it have ceased smoking. The sample were allowed to cool
down to room temperature and were placed in muffle oven at 550oC for 12 hours. The furnace
was turned off and let its temperature has dropped to at least 250oC. The sample were place in
desiccator and were cooled to room temperature. The weight of samples were recorded.
From the experiment the result obtained are, the weight of the crucible for replicate 1 and 2 are
respectively 33.8157g and 36.5970g, while the weight of the crucible with the sample for
replicate 1 and 2 are respectively 35.8275g and 38.6325g. Furthermore, the weight of the
sample themselves for replicate 1 and 2 are 2.0118g and 2.0355g. The weight of the crucible
and the sample after ashing were recorded as 33.0202g and 35.4239g respectively for replicate
1 and 2, while the ash weight for replicate 1 and 2 are -0.7955g and -1.1731g. Other than that,
ash content of the sample can be calculated using the formula (refer appendices), for replicate
1 is -39.54% and for replicate 2 is -57.63%, so the mean of ash for this sample is -48.57%.
Theoretically, we should know that ash contents of fresh foods rarely exceed 5%, although
some processed foods can have ash contents as high as 12% such as dried beef
Based on the results sited above, the weight of the crucible and the sample being ignited using
the muffle furnace forming the ash resulted a decreased in weight. Theoretically, the
experiment will show the loss of volatile elements which is means that the weight of sample
with its crucible will decrease with the original sample (before ashing). This implies that while
the sample was ignited in the muffle furnace, which means the crucible containing the samples
was subjected to a very hot environment, the effect of heat on the samples decomposes and
produces oxygen. The samples decreased by its mass because the water vapor was loosed
producing a dark purple or black crystals. Ashing at a lower temperature of 500–525◦C may
result in slightly higher ash values because of less decomposition of carbonates and loss of
volatile salts. Porcelain crucibles resemble quartz crucibles in their properties, but will crack
with rapid temperature changes. Hence, selection of an appropriate crucible depends on the
sample being analyzed and the furnace temperature used.

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Ash content is a measure of the total amount of minerals present within a food.

The higher the

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