Mackensey McNeal Wilson - Society for Science Skip to content

Mackensey McNeal Wilson

8th Grade, Eastern Middle School
Riverside, CT

Macky has two dogs that she adores. “In the past, one of my dogs had significant skin irritations, and we didn’t know what was causing it,” she says. “What finally solved the problem was changing her food, which eventually cleared the skin problem, and she was as good as new.” This made Macky want to find out exactly what could be in dog food that caused dogs trouble. She came across butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), a preservative. It is used in a lot of human and pet foods

Prevalence of Harmful BHT in Dog Foods

View Poster
2024 Thermo Fisher JIC Finalist Mackensey McNeal Wilson poster: Shedding Light on the Prevalence of Harmful Butylated Hydroxytoluene Preservative in Artificially Formulated Dog Foods
Shedding Light on the Prevalence of Harmful Butylated Hydroxytoluene Preservative in Artificially Formulated Dog Foods Mackensey McNeal Wilson
View Poster

Project Background

Macky sourced three popular brands of dry dog food from her friends and family. She ground up 10 grams of each one and soaked them in ethanol. Once they had dried out, she used a spectrometer to find BHT in the foods. She also used a technique called high performance liquid chromatography to analyze each food and determine how much BHT was in each one.

“I started my project thinking the brands researched wouldn’t include BHT due to the fact it wasn’t stated on the nutritional labels,” Macky says. “However, the brand Acana included 0.101% of BHT, Wilderness included 0.124% and Wellness included 0.104% of BHT.” Macky is concerned that BHT is not good for pets. “If I continued this topic, my next step would be to suggest that more information be communicated on nutritional labels of dog foods, so that consumers could make more-informed decisions,” she says.

2024 Thermo Fisher Scientific JIC Junior Innovators Challenge Public Day Washington DC
Lisa Fryklund/Licensed by Society for Science

Beyond the Project

Macky loves to play field hockey. “I enjoy field hockey because it allows me to set goals and strive for them,” she says. She also is part of the Greenwich Youth Conservation program, where teens work on beaches, trails and parks. “We plant trees, remove invasive species, clean up trash and maintain walking trails throughout the town,” she says. Unsurprisingly, Macky wants to be a veterinarian. “Ever since I was younger, animals have always fascinated me, and being able to research what they are eating and the harmful effects really is important to me,” she says.

2024 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (JIC) Finalist - portrait
Lisa Fryklund/Licensed by Society for Science