2.

WATER IN FOODS

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 Learning objectives

After completing this chapter learner should be able to:

1. Understand the structure and properties of water

2. Type of water

3. Type of hydrogen bond in water

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 Introduction

Water is the most critical of all nutrients.

It is an essential constituent of all cell structures and is the medium in

which all the chemical reactions of a cellular metabolism take place.

Water is the major component of all living organisms.

It constitutes 60% or more of the weight of most living things, and it

pervades all portions of every cell.

Water is the universal solvent and dispersing agent, as well as a very

reactive chemical compound.

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 Biologically active structures of macromolecules are spontaneously
formed only to aqueous media.

Intracellular water is a medium in which structural arrangement and all

metabolic processes occur.

It is an active partner of molecular interactions, participating directly in

many biochemical reactions as a substrate or a product.

Its high heat capacity allows water to act as a heat buffer in all
organisms.

Regulation of water contents is important in the maintenance of

homeostasis in all living systems.

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 • Stability, wholesomeness, and shelf life are significant features of foods
that are, to a large degree, influenced by the water content.

• Dried foods were originally developed to overcome the constraints of

time and distance before consumption.

• Canned and frozen foods were developed next.

• The physical properties, quantity, and quality of water within food

have a strong impact on food effectiveness, quality attributes, shelf life,
textural properties and processing.

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 Structure and Properties of water

• Water is a familiar material, but it has been described as the most

anomalous of chemical compounds.

• Although its chemical composition, HOH, or H2O, is universally

known, the simplicity of its formula belies the complexity of its
behavior.
• Its physical and chemical properties are very different from
compounds of similar complexity, such as HF and H2S.

• Although a water molecule is electrically neutral as a whole, it has a

dipolar character.

• The high polarity of water is caused by the direction of the H-O-H

bond angle, which is 104.5o, and by an asymmetrical distribution of
electrons within the molecule.
• O
• / 104.5°\
• +H H+
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 • In a single water molecule, each hydrogen atom shares an electron pair
with the oxygen atom in a stable covalent bond.

• However, the sharing of electrons between H and O is unequal because

the more electronegative oxygen atom tends to draw electrons away from
the hydrogen nuclei.

• The electrons are more often in the vicinity of the oxygen atom than in the
vicinity of the hydrogen atom.

• The result of this unequal electron sharing is the existence of two electric
dipoles in the molecule, one along each of the H-O bonds.

• The oxygen atom bears a partial negative charge and each hydrogen atom
a partial positive charge. Because the molecule is not linear, H-O-H has a
dipole moment.

• Water molecules can interact through electrostatic attraction between the

© TANUVAS, 2011 oxygen atom of one water molecule and the hydrogen of another.
 Type of hydrogen bond in water
• Such interactions, which arise because the electrons on one molecule c
an be partially shared with the hydrogen on another, are known as
hydrogen bonds.

• The H2O molecule, which contains two hydrogen atoms and one
oxygen atom in a nonlinear arrangement, is ideally suited to engage in
hydrogen bonding.

• It can act both as a donor and as an acceptor of hydrogen.

• The nearly tetrahedral arrangement of the H orbital about the oxygen

atom allows each water molecule to form hydrogen bonds with four of
its neighbors.

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 • An individual, isolated hydrogen bond is very labile. It is longer and
weaker than a covalent O-H bond.

• The hydrogen bond’s energy, that is, the energy required to break the
bond, is about 20kJ/mol.

• These bonds are intermediate between those of weak Van der Waals
interactions (about 1.2 kJ/mol) and those of covalent bonds
(460kJ/mol).

• Hydrogen bonds are highly directional; they are stronger when the
hydrogen atom and the two atoms that share it are in a straight line.

• Hydrogen bonds are not unique to water.

• They are formed between water and different chemical structures, as

well as between other molecules (Intermolecular) or even within a
molecule (Intramolecular
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 Water in foods
• Most natural foods contain water up to 70% of their weight.

• Water in foods is classified in to two types: (a) bound water and (b) free
water

• Water that can be extracted easily from foods by squeezing or cutting or

pressing is called as free water

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 Bound Water

Water that is held so tightly by another molecule (usually a large molecule

such as a protein) that it no longer has the properties of free water;
water that is not easily removed from the food is called bound water.
• This water is not free to act as solvent for salts and sugars.
• It ca be frozen only at very low temperatures. It exhibits no vapour
pressure. Its density is greater than water.
• The water molecules are bound to polar groups or ions on molecules
such as starches, pectin, and proteins.
• This water is held firmly.
• The subsequent water layers are held less firmly.
The bound water is of three types
i. Constitutional
ii. Vicinal
iii. Multilayer

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 • i. Constitutional: They form an integral part of a non aqueous
constituent forming <0.03%. It is constituted by a monolayer of water
molecules absorbed on the polar absorption site of the molecule is
almost immobilized and thus behaves, in many respects, like part of the
solid or like water in ice.

• ii. Vicinal: It is the bound water that strongly acts with specific
hydrophilic sites of non-aqueous constituents to form a monolayer
coverage; water-ion and water-dipole bonds forming 0.1 to 0.9%.

• iii. Multilayer: Bound water that forms several additional layers around
hydrophilic groups, water-water and water-solute hydrogen bonds. It
forms 1-5%.

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 b) Free or entrapped water

• Water that can be extracted easily from foods by squeezing or cutting or

pressing is called as free water.

• Flow is unimpeded; properties close to dilute salt solutions.

• Free water is held within matrix or gel, which impedes flow forming 5-
96%.

• Entrapped water is immobilized in capillaries or cells but if released

during cutting or damage, it flows freely.

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 Water activity
Water activity or aw is a measurement of water content.

It is defined as the vapour pressure of a liquid divided by that of pure

water at the same temperature; therefore, pure distilled water has a
water activity of exactly one.
P
aw = —
P0
where p is the vapor pressure of water in the substance, and P0 is the
vapor pressure of pure water at the same temperature.

As the temperature increases, aw typically increases, except in some

product with crystalline salt or sugar.

Higher aw substances tend to support more microorganism.

Bacteria usually require at least 0.91, and fungi at least 0.7.

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 • Many of the chemical and biological processes that cause deterioration of
foods, and ultimately spoilage, are water dependent.
• Water activity aw represents the water which is made available for the
microbial action.

• Microbial growth is directly linked to water activity.

• Essentially, water activity is the measure of the degree to which water is

bound within the food, and hence is unavailable for further chemical or
microbial activity
•
• Relative humidity of moist air is defined in the same way except that by
convention, relative humidity is reported as a percentage whereas water
activity is expressed as a fraction.

• Thus if a sample of meat sausage is sealed within an airtight container, the

humidity of the air in the head space will rise and eventually equilibrate to
a relative humidity of, say 83%, which means that the water activity (aw) of
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the meat sausage is 0.83.
 Water activity and Shelf life of Foods

• It is an important consideration for food product design and food

safety.

• Food designers use water activity to formulate products that are shelf
stable.
• If a product is kept below a certain water activity, then mold growth is
inhibited. This results in a longer shelf-life.

• Water activity is used in many cases as a critical control point for

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) programs.

• Samples of the food product are periodically taken from the production
area and tested to ensure water activity values are within a specified
range for food quality and safety.

• Measurements can be made in as little as five minutes, and are made

regularly in most major food production facilities.

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 Water activity of some foods

Substance aw
Distilled Water 1
Tap water 0.99
Raw meats 0.99[
Milk 0.97
Juice 0.97
Cooked bacon < 0.85
Saturated NaCl solution 0.75
Point at which cereal loses
0.65
crunch
Dried fruits 0.60
Typical indoor air 0.5 - 0.7
Honey 0.5 - 0.7
Dried fruit 0.5 - 0.6

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 • Microbial growth
• Many of the chemical and biological processes that cause deterioration
of foods, and ultimately spoilage, are water dependent.

• Microbial growth is directly linked to water activity.

• No microbes can multiply at a water activity below 0.6.

• Dehydration
• Dehydration is arguably the oldest form of food preservation;
• The sun drying of meat and fish has been traces to the beginning of
recorded history.
• Drying relies on removing water, thus making it unavailable for
microbial growth.

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 • Salting or curing
• Salting or curing has the same effect.

• A saturated solution of common salt has a water activity of close to

0.75.

• Thus by adding sufficient salt to foods, the water activity can be

lowered to a level where most pathogenic bacteria are inactivated but
the moisture content remains high.

• Intermediate moisture content foods (IMF), such as pet food and

continental sausages; rely on fats and water-binding humectants such
as glycerol to lower water activity.

• Fat, being essentially hydrophobic, does not bind water, but acts as
filler for IMF to increase the volume of the product.

• The water activity of the salted food is 0.8.

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 Benefits of drying of food
• None of the dangerous pathogenic bacteria associated with food, such
as Clostridium or Vibrio spp. which cause botulism and cholera, can
multiply at water activity values below about 0.9.

• Drying or providing sufficient water-binding humectants is an effective

method of preventing the growth of food-poisoning bacteria.

• Only osmophilic yeast and some molds can grow at water activities in
the range 0.6 to 0.65.

• Thus, by reducing the water activity below these values, foods are
microbial stable.

• That is, unless the packaging is such that the food becomes locally
rewet, in which case local spoilage can occur, for example, when
condensation occurs within a hermetically sealed package subject to
rapid cooling.

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 Chemical reactions and water activity

• Various chemical reactions that proceed, and may be accelerated, at low

values of water activity.

• Maillard reactions leading to lysine loss and brown color development

peaks at aw around 0.5 to 0.8.

• Nonenzymatic lipid oxidation increases rapidly below aw = 0.4.

• Enzymatic hydrolysis decreases with water activity down to aw = 0.3

and is then negligible.

• Water is facilitator of biochemical deterioration of foods.

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 • Dry foods are much more stable than wet foods, because any water
remaining to them has low activity, aw.

• Freezing removes water from the food matrix by forming ice crystals.

• Although the ice crystals remain in the food, the remaining water which
is in contact with the food matrix becomes concentrated with solutes
and it’s aw becomes low.

• Freezing is therefore akin to drying and this is the rationale for

preserving food by freezing.

• Most micro-organisms cease functioning below the water activity of

about 0.7.

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