UCAT Question Analysis - Verbal Reasoning Question 16
TEXT
Liquid Dye is made out of synthetic colourings with a water base, usually found in little plastic squeezy bottles. Being water-based, it is the least in-tense and weakest of all food colourings, meaning you will need to use more of it to achieve a brighter or deeper colour. If you use a significant amount, the extra liquid has the potential to thin and throw off a recipe. It is thus most suited to recipes requiring lighter colours.
Liquid Gel Dye is a synthetic colouring with a water, glycerine and/or corn syrup base, which is available in small dropper bottles that contain a thick gel-like liquid. It is harder to find than liquid dye and, because of its thick texture, it can be harder to incorporate into thick or stiff dough. However the colour in liquid gel dye is more concentrated than traditional liquid food col-ourings, so you need less, which is important in recipes where you want to minimise the amount of liquid added (such as in sweets or icing recipes). Since you need less, there is less of a chance the colouring will adversely flavour the food too.
Gel Paste Dye is a synthetic colouring with a water, glycerine and/or corn syrup base, usually found in small pots or jars. It is an even more concen-trated form of liquid gel dye and is therefore thicker; you only need a small amount, so it can be slightly less messy than using dropper bottles. Gel paste dye is very effective in dyeing a large amount of mix (like cake mix) and produces dark, saturated colours. It is easy to add too much colouring, which cannot be undone. Online reviews by users suggest that red dyes °produce a weird metallic taste".
Powdered Dye is a synthetic colouring with no water, glycerine or corn syrup, found In Jars. Since there is no liquid in powdered dyes, it's yi eat in recipes where any added liquid can lead to a disaster, like in crystal sugar, chocolate, macaroons or meringues. Powdered dye won't dry out like other food dyes and has an extremely long shelf life — great for producing really dark shades of colour.
Q16.1 With regard to liquid dyes, which of the following conclusions is the author most likely to disagree with?
A. Using large quantities of liquid dyes will not affect taste.
B. Liquid dyes are good to achieve pastel tones.
C. It is not advisable to make macaroons with liquid dye.
D. When using liquid dyes to obtain a bright colour, it is best to reduce the amount of water/milk used in the recipe by an equivalent amount.
Q16.2 An amateur baker has a stock of each of the four types of dye, but the labels setting out the ingredients are missing. He wishes to bake a bright red cake with a stiff mix for someone who is allergic to glycerine. Which is the most suitable dye to use?
A. Liquid dye.
B. Liquid gel dye.
C. Gel paste dye.
D. Powdered dye.
Q16.3 Which conclusion can be drawn from the passage?
A. Gel paste dye dries out more quickly than liquid dye.
B. Red gel paste dye is not a natural product.
C. Non-red gel paste dye does not taste metallic.
D. Powdered dye does not affect taste.
Q16.4 Which conclusion can be drawn from the passage?
A. One cannot use two types of dye in the same cake mix.
B. Gel paste dye is hard to incorporate into stiff dough.
C. Powdered dye is not water soluble.
D. Gel paste dye is more expensive than liquid gel dye.
Q16.5 Someone with a corn allergy cannot use liquid gel or gel paste dyes.
❑ True
❑ False
❑ Can't tell
Answer and Explanation
Q16.1 — A: Using large quantities of liquid dyes will not affect taste.
Though the paragraph dealing with liquid dye does not state directly that using large quantities of liquid dye will not affect taste, the paragraph on liquid gel dye explains that, because liquid gel dyes are more concentrated, you need to use a smaller amount, with less of a chance that the colouring will adversely flavour the food. Therefore using large quantities of liquid dye is likely to affect the taste. Looking at the other options:
• B: Liquid dyes are good to achieve pastel tones. The text states that liquid dyes are most suited to recipes requiring lighter colours. That would Include pastel colours.
• C: It is not advisable to make macaroons with liquid dye. The par-agraph on powdered dye suggests that, when making macaroons, add-ing any liquid can lead to a disaster. Therefore it would indeed not be advisable to use liquid dyes when making macaroons.
• D: When using liquid dyes to obtain a bright colour, it is best to reduce the amount of water/milk used in the recipe by an equiva-lent amount. Bright colours can only be achieved by using arge amounts of liquid dye. One can therefore conclude that problems would be avoided by reducing the quantities of milk/water accordingly.
Q16.2 — D: Powdered dye.
If the cake is for somebody who is allergic to glycerine then this rules out liquid gel and gel paste dyes, both of which potentially contain that ingredient (we can't be sure since the label is miss-ing, hence the risk cannot be taken). Using liquid dye would require large quantities, which would thin the mix. Hence using powdered dye would be the most suitable option.
Q16.3 — B: Red gel paste dye is not a natural product.
The first line of the gel paste dye paragraph states that this type of dye is synthetic; there-fore, red or not, it is not natural. Looking at the other options:
• A: Gel paste dye dries out more quickly than liquid dye. All we know is that powdered dye will not dry out like the other types of dye; but nothing in the text gives any indication about the relative drying times of the other dyes.
• C: Non-red gel paste dye does not taste metallic. The text only re-fers to red gel paste dye as having been found to taste metallic by some users. The absence of comments about other colours does not in any way mean that they do not taste metallic as well.
• D: Powdered dye does not affect taste. The text does not address the link between powdered dye and taste. Therefore we cannot infer anything.
Q16.4 — B: Gel paste dye is hard to incorporate into stiff dough.
We are told that liquid gel dye has a thick texture which makes it harder to in-corporate into stiff dough. We are also told that gel paste dye is thicker than liquid gel dye; hence we can conclude that it will be even harder to incorpo-rate into stiff dough. Looking at the other options:
• A: One cannot use two types of dye in the same cake mix. Nothing in the text suggests that they cannot be mixed.
• C: Powdered dye is not water soluble. Nothing in the text suggests it is not water soluble. Particularly the fact that it is not water-based cannot be interpreted as such.
• D: Gel paste dye is more expensive than liquid gel dye. All we know from the text is that gel paste dye is more concentrated than liquid gel dye. That may Impact on price but we are not told how.
Q16.5 — FALSE.
We are told that liquid gel and gel paste dyes have a wa-ter, glycerine and/or corn syrup base. The 'and/or" indicates that corn syrup may or may not be present, and suggests that some brands do not contain corn syrup (if corn syrup was always included then the use of "and/ors would make no sense). Therefore those allergic to corn could use both of these types of dye, but would simply need to select the variants that do not include corn syrup.
Drafted by Juno Wong(UCAT Prep)