Extracting Iron from Cereal: A Simple Demonstration

Many cereals are fortified with iron to supplement the dietary intake from natural sources. Adding finely powdered iron (reduced iron) or iron compounds is the method usually followed for fortifying cereals. Even though a serving of the cereal may contain enough iron and other minerals to satisfy daily requirements, the body will only absorb a portion of it during the process of digestion. It is easy to separate iron powder from fortified cereals to demonstrate the presence of iron in cereals.

Things You'll Need

• Breakfast cereal fortified with iron
• Plastic bag
• Rolling pin
• Clear beaker
• Water
• Magnetic stir bar
• Wooden spoon
• Tongs

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Instructions

• 1

  Choose a breakfast cereal fortified with iron. Check the nutrition chart on the package for presence of iron or reduced iron.

• 2

  Put a cup of the breakfast cereal into a plastic bag. Place it flat on a table and crush the cereal with a rolling pin.

• 3

  Fill your beaker with half a liter of water.

• 4

  Take a clean magnetic stir bar. Add it to the contents in the beaker.

• 5

  Add the crushed cereal to the beaker.

• 6

  Stir the contents in the beaker with the wooden spoon. Continue for 10 to 15 minutes. Dilute the mixture with more water if it becomes too thick to stir.

• 7

  Take the magnetic stir bar out of the beaker using a clean pair of tongs.

• 8

  Examine the magnetic stir bar. It will have a gray dusty coating of iron.