Beef jerky is made by drying fresh beef. During drying, the beef loses \(60\%\) of its original mass as water evaporates. Assume no protein is lost. A \(4\,\text{oz}\) portion of fresh beef contains about \(22\,\text{g}\) of protein.
a) About how many grams of protein are in \(4\,\text{oz}\) of the finished beef jerky under these assumptions?
b) By what percent did the protein concentration, measured as protein per \(4\,\text{oz}\), change during drying?
c) For comparison, assume dry pasta absorbs water when cooked, gains mass, and keeps the same total amount of protein. Why would protein per \(4\,\text{oz}\) increase for jerky but decrease for cooked pasta?
Hints
- Find the mass that remains after a \(60\%\) loss.
- The protein remains while the water leaves.
- Scale the approximate protein amount in the smaller jerky portion to a \(4\,\text{oz}\) portion.
- Compare what happens to the amount of protein per unit of mass when water is removed versus added.
Solution
1. After losing \(60\%\) of its mass, the \(4\,\text{oz}\) portion becomes \(4\,\text{oz}\cdot0.40=1.6\,\text{oz}\) of jerky.
2. About \(22\,\text{g}\) of protein remains in the \(1.6\,\text{oz}\) of jerky.
3. Scale to \(4\,\text{oz}\): \(\frac{22\,\text{g}}{1.6\,\text{oz}}\cdot4\,\text{oz}\approx55\,\text{g}\).
4. The concentration is multiplied by \(4\div1.6=2.5\). Therefore, it becomes \(250\%\) of the original concentration, which is a \(150\%\) increase.
5. Jerky loses water, so the same protein is concentrated in less mass. Under the stated pasta assumption, added water spreads the same protein through more mass.
Answer
a) About \(55\,\text{g}\)
b) An increase of \(150\%\)
c) Jerky loses water and mass, concentrating the protein, while the stated pasta process adds water and mass without adding protein.