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T.L.V. PEIRIS
GS/MSc/Food/3630/08
1. DETERMINATION OF MOISTURE CONTENT BY OVEN DRYING
METHOD
INTRODUCTION
The moisture content which results from oven drying method depends on the type of food
stuff used. The determination of moisture in a food is done for many purposes such as
assessment of quality, quality control, quality assurance, detection and estimation of
adulteration, conformity with food standards and other statutory requirement, calculation
of total food solids content, assessment of stability, shelf life and storage life.
These types may occur in varying quantities in food and are held by physical chemical
forces of diverse nature. Even though the accuracy and precision of moisture result is
low; the reproducibility results can be obtained under a set of standardized condition.
The shelf life of the product depends on water activity. Moisture can be determined by
using following methods,
• Thermal Drying method
Drying either hot air oven at 1050C in 2-3 hours or in vacuum ovens which is
widely used for sugar based foods. The measurement of the weight loss which
results due to the evaporation of H2O at or near boiling point is taken here. The loss
in weight depend on the particle size, weight of the sample used, type of the dish
and temperature variation in the ovens etc.
• Chemical assay
This is based on the non-stoicheometric reaction of water.
• Physical method
Involves physical and physiochemical reaction in food.
Oven drying method is widely used. The weight loss due to the removal of water by
heating under specific conditions is considered here. The loss of weight due to drying is
considered as a measure of the moisture content of the sample.
MATERIALS
METHOD
About 5 g of the sample was weighed in to a moisture dish which was previously dried in
an oven and weighed. Then the uncovered dish was dried along side for 21/2 hrs. The
dish was covered and was transferred to desiccators and weighed quickly as possible as
the dish was cooled. The heating and weighing procedures was repeated until successive
weight did not differ by more than one milligram .Loss in weights were recorded.
RESULTS
CALCULATIONS
= m2-m3 x 100
m2-m1
m1 = Weight of empty dish
m2 = Weight of empty dish + sample before drying
m3 = Weight of empty dish + sample after drying
DISCUSSION
Oven drying method is widely used in determination of moisture. Water is removed due
to heating at 105 °C. Loss of weight due to vaporization of water is taken as weight of
moisture. But spices like cinnamon contain volatile oil in addition to moisture and these
volatile oils also get loss during oven drying. Due to this the weight loss due to the loss of
volatile oils also gets counted for moisture determination. This is the main disadvantage
of oven drying method. This method is not suitable to determine the moisture content of
thermally unstable compounds and this method removes only free water. Since oven
drying method is simple, low cost and easy, it is widely used for routine analysis.
INTRODUCTION
Distillation methods are particularly useful for foods with low moisture content and for
products containing volatile oils such as herbs and spices. Since the oils remain dissolved
in the organic solvent the disadvantages are that they have often been reported to give
low values and their requirements for flammable solvent pose small but significant
hazards.
The Dean and Stark method is widely used in determination of moisture. A known
weight of food is placed in a flask with an organic solvent such as xylene or toluene. The
organic solvent must be insoluble with water; have a higher boiling point than water; be
less dense than water; and be safe to use. The flask containing the sample and the organic
solvent is attached to a condenser by a side arm and the mixture is heated. The water in
the sample evaporates and moves up into the condenser where it is cooled and converted
back into liquid water, which then trickles into the graduated tube. When no more water
gets collect in the graduated tube, distillation is stopped and the volume of water is read
from the tube. Distillation with a boiling liquid provides an effective means of heat
transfer, the water is removed rapidly. If the boiling liquid is lighter than the water, the
collecting trap usually contains a tube with tap at the bottom and calibrated upward. This
form requires reading only one meniscus in measuring the amount of collected water. The
calibrated portion of the tube may be cooled by a water bath to standard temperature.
MATERIALS
METHOD
All the glass wares were cleaned and dried in an oven. 50 ml Toluene solution and some
pumice stones were added to a boiling flask. The calibrated arm was fixed on the flask
and was boiled until the graduated tube gets constant volume of water.2.00 ml of water
was added to the flask and was boiled until constant volume obtained. Then accurately
weighed (about 2 g) was added and boiled until the graduated tube indicates a constant
volume for the extracted water layer. This is equal to the same value of water in gram.
RESULTS
CALCULATIONS
DISCUSSION
In this practical we have used toluene as the solvent. There are few reasons to do so,
1.) Water drops will remains on the walls of the distillate tube. So can get a wrong
measurement.
Dean & Stark method is suitable for determination of moisture in foods containing
volatile matters. But this method is not suitable for routing testing and is employed only
when conventional oven drying method is not suitable. It is also not suitable determine
small amount of water. It needs little attention, no contamination.
The solvent should be irreversible, higher boiling point and lower specific gravity than
water. Since toluene has high boiling point (110-111 °C), lower density (0.86 g/ml) and
immiscible with water, it was used as the solvent. Other than the toluene, heptane, xylene
a mixture of N-amyl alcohol and xylene can be used as solvent. For high precision, a
distillation factor correction was done by standardizing the apparatus with known amount
of water and measuring the recovered amount water.
Method of moisture determination is varied according to the sample to be tested. i.e.
viscose foods such as oils, fats done by adding clean dry sand , which facilitate
evaporation by increasing surface area and to avoid formation of films and crusts. Due to
the experimental errors we got higher value for moisture content.
REFERENCES:
• Pearson, David, 1976, The chemical analysis of foods, First-4th ed. By H.E.Cox