Teen chemist uncovers potentially harmful preservatives in pet food

Mackensey Wilson, 14, never planned on doing a science fair project. But when one of her dogs kept getting rashes that seemed to be linked to what pet food she’d been eating, Mackensey got curious. She wanted to know what chemicals people were feeding their furry friends. In her research, Mackensey read some past studies that suggested a preservative called BHT might be toxic. So Mackensey homed in on this chemical.

She ground up three brands of dry dog food used by many of her friends and family. Then, she soaked the powder in alcohol to release any BHT. A couple of techniques helped her analyze how much BHT had been in the food. One was spectrometry. The other: high-performance liquid chromatography. Acana, Wilderness and Wellness brands all contained about 0.1 percent BHT. But none listed it on their nutrition labels.

An aspiring veterinarian, Mackensey did her project as an eighth grader at Eastern Middle School in Riverside, Conn. Her research earned her a finalist spot in the 2024 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. She also won the second-place Science Award at the competition. This program is run by Society for Science, which also publishes Science News Explores.

Here, Mackensey reflects on her science fair experiences.  

What was your favorite part of this project?

“Definitely using all the machines,” says Mackensey. To do her research, she enrolled in a program where students in her district visited a high school lab early in the morning each week. “It was really cool using all the instruments and learning how they worked,” she says. “The other very fun part was explaining the research to the people that I got the dog-food brands from.”

What was it like going to your first science fair?

“It was very nerve-wracking,” Mackensey says. “I had never done anything like that before.” All in all, she found the fair experience fun and rewarding. “I made a bunch of friends,” she says. “Meeting so many new people with different ideas … you can really learn more about science just from being in a science fair, not even winning anything, but just going there and experiencing it.”

What was the most challenging part of the project?

“The challenging part was having to come in on weekends [and] having to wake up so early,” Mackensey says. She had to balance her science-fair project with schoolwork and extracurricular activities. “I had nationals for field hockey during one of the weekends. So I had to go in right before leaving for Pennsylvania to practice my whole science presentation.”

Any advice for juggling science fair with other activities?

Organization is key. “I use a Google Calendar,” Mackensey says. “It can really help you be able to juggle and manage everything.” And if someone is unsure about whether to try a science project at all, give it a shot, she adds. “It may end up being very good for you — and if not, then you learn. And you can always attempt it next year.”