Lecture n.

04
Water
 Key-Topics
 Moisture content of water in
foods
 Role of water in food
processing
 Free and bound water
 Water activity

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 WATER IN FOOD

WATER CONTENT IS ABOUT 75%

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 MOISTURE CONTENT OF SOME FOODS

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 MOISTURE CONTENT IS VERY IMPORTANT
 Legal requirements. There are legal limits to the maximum or minimum amount
of water that must be present in certain types of food, like flours, pasta, bread,
spreadable cheese, etc.
 Economic. The cost of many foods depends on the amount of water they contain -
water is an inexpensive ingredient, and manufacturers often try to incorporate as
much as possible in a food, without exceeding some maximum legal
requirement.
 Food Quality. The texture, taste, appearance and stability of foods depends on
the amount of water they contain. For certain food like meat, an important
parameter is called “Water Holding Capacity”.
 Food Processing Operations. A knowledge of the moisture content is often
necessary to predict the behaviour of foods during processing, e.g. mixing,
drying, flow through a pipe or packaging.
 Microbial Stability? The propensity of microorganisms to grow in foods depends
on their water content. For this reason many foods are dried below some critical
moisture content. BUT NOT ALWAYS MOISTURE CONTENT TELL YOU THE TRUTH!!!

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 THERMOBALANCE
 There are several techniques
to measure moisture…
 But the most simple is by
thermogravimetry, i.e. by loss
on drying
 The sample is heated and the
weight loss due to evaporation
of moisture is recorded.
 This can performed by drying
oven method (very long) or by
thermobalance (very quick).

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 TYPE OF WATER IN FOODS
1."Bound Water": Water (1-2%) is chemically bound with proteins or
fibres and is nearly impossible to remove it by drying. This is not part of
the moisture content.
2."Immobilized Water": Water is physically immobilized when food has
compartments that impede physically the movement of water. In meat, this
is the water immobilized by the myofibrils. In plants, is the water
immobilized in the cells walls. This is part of the moisture content and it
affects the “Water Holding Capacity” in meat samples
(http://qpc.adm.slu.se/6_Fundamentals_of_WHC/page_31.htm).
3."Free Water": As the name implies, water in this category is subject to
being lost. This is also part of the moisture content and is also defined as
water activity.

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 MOISTURE CONTENT vs WATER ACTIVITY

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 MOISTURE CONTENT
Moisture content is the amount of water contained in a sample

Composition

Water Solids

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 EXPRESSION OF THE RESULTS
RESULTS OF MOISTURE CONTENT CAN BE EXPRESSED IN TWO WAYS:

MC
DRY BASIS WET BASIS
Amount of water content per Amount of water content per
unit mass of wet sample unit mass of dry sample

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 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
MOISTURE CONTENT DRY AND WET BASIS
MOISTURE CONTENT IN WET BASIS

𝑫𝑩
𝑫𝑩

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 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
MOISTURE CONTENT DRY AND WET BASIS

EXAMPLE: THE MOISTURE IS 80% WET BASIS. EXPRESS IN DRY BASIS

This means that there are 80 g of moisture in 100 g of food moist.
Know, we can express it in dry basis as:
MCDB(%) = 100 x (0.80 / 0.20) = 400%
In practice, this means that the water content is 4 times the solids

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EXAMPLE: DETERMINATION OF THE MOISTURE CONTENT.
A fresh sample is placed on an empty glass watch. The overall weight is 35 g (the glass watch
weight 25 g). The sample is dried in oven. After drying, the sample and the glass watch weight
31 g. Determine the moisture content.

DATA
M0 = mass of glass watch = 25 g
M1 = mass of glass watch + moist sample = 35 g
M2 = mass of glass watch + dried sample = 31 g

CALCULUS
M(fresh sample) = M1 – M0 = 35 – 25 = 10 g
M(dried sample) = M2 – M0 = 31 – 25 = 6 g
M(water) = M(fresh sample) - M(dried sample) = 4 g

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 NOT ONLY MOISTURE,
BUT ALSO WATER ACTIVITY!

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 WATER ACTIVITY OF SOME FOODS

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 HOWEVER, LET’S DEFINE
VAPOUR PRESSION, FIRST
 Place a sample in a container and apply vacuum.
 Stop vacuum and measure the pressure at equilibrium.
Temperature
°C kPa mBar psi
0.01 0.61 61 0.090
3 0.75 75 0.110
6 0.9 90 0.132
9 1.1 110 0.162
12 1.4 140 0.206
15 1.7 170 0.250
18 2.1 210 0.309
21 2.5 250 0.367
24 3 300 0.441
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 AND NOW, WATER ACTIVITY:
VAPOR PRESSURE
OF THE SAMPLE
Storage quality
of food does not
depend on the
At a specific temperature
water content,
but on water
activity (Aw):
VAPOR PRESSURE
OF WATER

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 WATER ACTIVITY and RELATIVE HUMIDITY
OF AIR AT THE EQUILIBRIUM
When food is left equilibrate with the environment, at a
certain point, its water activity value will become equal to
the relative humidity of the environment

= partial vapor pressure of food moisture at temperature T

= saturation vapor pressure of pure water at T
= equilibrium relative humidity at T.

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 DEW POINT METERS

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 MEASUREMENT OF WATER ACTIVITY
 A sample is placed in a sealed
chamber containing a mirror,
an optical sensor, a fan blade,
and a thermopile.
 At equilibrium, the relative
humidity of the air in the
chamber is the same as the
water activity of the sample.
 The mirror is cooled. When
condensation appears, an
optical sensor (IR) detect the
change in reflectance.

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 WATER ACTIVITY OF SOME FOOD

Food Aw
Wurstel 0.96
Salami 0.82 – 0.85
Dried fruits 0.72 – 0.80
Jams 0.82 – 0.94
Honey 0.75

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 MICROBIAL GROWTH
aw Bacteria Typical Products
Clostridium botulinum E fresh meat, fruits,
0.97
Pseudomonas fluorescens vegetables, canned fruit, canned vegetables
Escherichia coli; Clostridium perfringens low-salt bacon, cooked sausages,
0.95
Salmonella spp.; Vibrio cholerae nasal spray, eye drops
Clostridium botulinum A, B
0.94
Vibrio parahaemolyticus
some cheeses, cured meat (ham), bakery goods,
0.93 Bacillus cereus
evaporated milk
0.92 Listeria monocytogenes
0.91 Bacillus subtilis
Staphylococcus aureus (anaerobic); aged cheeses (cheddar), fermented sausage
0.90-
Saccharomyces cerevisiae; (salami), dried meats (jerky), bacon, most fruit juice
0.80
Aspergillus niger concentrates, chocolate syrup, fruit cake, fondants
dried fruits, corn syrup, licorice, marshmallows,
0.62 Saccharomyces rouxii
chewing gums, dried pet foods
0.60 No microbial proliferation

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 WHO IS WHO IN WATER ACTIVITY
Theodore P. Labuza
https://fscn.cfans.umn.edu/faculty-staff/theodore-
p-labuza

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 EFFECT OF Aw ON SHELF-LIFE

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according to Labuza, 1971
 WATER SORPTION ISOTHERMS
Moisture sorption isotherms describe the relationship between water activity
and moisture content at a constant temperature.

CHEWY
FOOD
DRY AND
CRISP
FOOD JUICY
FOOD

LIPID
OXIDATION
ENZYME ACTIVITY MICROBIAL
LIPID OXIDATION PROBLEMS PROBLEMS

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 Case studies: too dry receipt…
A manufacturer produces a
food at with 8% moisture
content. Why? Because at
that level, he had never had
spoilage problems or shelf B
life concerns.
A

At 8%, food had Aw = 0.28.

By isotherm knowledge he
can increase the moisture
in a way that final Aw is still
below 0.65 limit, but he can
sell more product and make
more profit!
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 Case studies: delicious cakes
A bakery prepare cakes.
Local demand is high
and sales could expand.
Unfortunately, shelf life
is max three-days. How A
get longer shelf life?
You have to reduce Aw B
<0.60, so the growth of
microbes is impossible.
Thus, add humectants,
like salt, sugar,
glycerols, maltitols,
xylitols, honey, egg yolk
powder, polyols,
hexametaphosphates,
etc.

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 Case studies: undesired
caking
A dry soup manufacturer mixes dry tomato with
3% moisture content with a pepper mix also
having 3% moisture content. Sure that it was
safe to mix, he did so. Returned from lunch, he
discovered that the whole batch clumped. And
he had to throw away the whole lot...
The manufacturer assumed that soup base at 3% moisture and pepper at 3%
moisture would be at equilibrium. WRONG! Moisture content don’t contain
information about equilibrium.
Instead, the soup base had Aw = 0.28. The ground pepper measured Aw =
0.69. In the mixing, water moves from pepper to soup base, creating clumps

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 FORMULATION FOR LONG
STORAGE STABILITY

By comparing the
isotherms of different
formulations, it is possible
to determine if a product
can be adjusted to allow
higher moisture content at
a given water activity or a
lower water activity at a
given moisture content.
The result can be a moister
product that is still shelf
stable.

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 A snack is packed in a aluminium container that
STORE IN FRESH preserves the moisture content.
ENVIRONMENT A cake with 25% moisture content will have a water
activity at 15C equal to Aw 0.60. That is safe.
However, at 40C, the water activity will be 0.70,
high enough for moulds to grow…

15C

25C
40C

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