What colours are hidden in our sweets? The young participants at the Science Garden Festival 2026 explored this question together with Prof. Valery Bochkov, Klara Hellauer, Marija Jelic and Petra Kumpan (Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry).
At their “Candy Chromatography” station, children and teenagers had the opportunity to discover one of the key laboratory methods used in pharmaceutical analysis. Using sweets coloured with food dyes, they learned about chromatography – the separation of mixtures of dyes into their individual components – in a fun and hands-on way. Together, they then explored why some colours dissolve easily in water and therefore travel upwards along the filter paper, while other colour components prefer to “lazily sit on the couch” and stay put. The station proved highly popular, attracting more than 200 children and teenagers, as well as teachers accompanying their students.
The Bochkov research group’s conclusion: “We’ll be back next year with our colourful sweets!”
