Food Chemistry

Water in Food
(Session 5)

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 Water in Food (Summary)
Glassy state: Solid sate of water
The significance of the glassy state for foods?:
Food stability , deterioration slows at T below Tg

Perishability is a 1) Water content

function of 2) Water associations with non-aqueous constituents

Water activity (aw) takes these factors into consideration

aw =F(moisture content)

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 Water Activity and Temperature
aw =F(T) , as indicated in Clausius-Clapeyron equation
Where:
P H 1 1 P & P0 are the vapor pressures
ln ( ) ( )
P0 R To T H is the heat of sorption (KJ/mol) ?? (video)
aw R is the ideal gas law constant, 8.2x10-3
T is the temperature (in kelvins).

Lets have a look at this figure

for 2 minutes:

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 Water Activity (aw) and Water Content
A graphical relationship between moisture and water activity at constant
temperature ( Isotherm)
Moisture Sorption Isotherm
Moisture content (g water/ g dry mass)

aw
(water activity on the horizontal axis.)
This curve could be correlated to a number of processes & food stability
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A schematic illustration of degradative
processes dependency on aw

Adopted from .Fennema, 1976

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 Water Activity (aw) and Water Content
Moisture Sorption Isotherm
(Zones of Water)
Zone 1:
The most strongly absorbed & immobilized water
Water-ion, water dipole integrations
Strongly bound Zone 3:
Folded up Inside globular proteins
The least strongly bound & most
Zone 2: mobile (Bulk Phase)
Multilayer water ( H bonded) Gels
H2O-H2O Act as solvent
H2O-Solute, salts, charged groups Removed easily (drying)

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 Control Water Activity in Food
Water removal ( e.g. dehydration)
Addition of solutes (humectants)
Sugars
NaCl
glycerol
pH ( e.g. for aw = 0.92 at pH>4.2, microbiological activities)
Control moisture level in packaging
Temperature control

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 Moisture content (g water/ g dry mass)

cold

aw
hot
Temperature Dependency

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Moisture adsorption isotherms at different storage
temperatures

Roos, 2002,
Fundamentals of
Water Activity

At any given EMC, aw increases with increasing temperature

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 Control Water Activity in Food
What is the optimum aw ?
How much reduction in aw ?
Limitation on aw lowering?
Solubility
Crystallization in storage
Reactivity
Toxicity
Oxidation

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 Water Activity (aw) and Water Content
Moisture Sorption Isotherm Monolayer
Monolayer: the boundary between zones 1 and 2
Higher Stability

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 Calculating the Monolayer
Brunauer & Emmett & Teller (BET) Method
aw 1 c 1
[ ]aw Qs
(1 aw)m moc moc ce RT

m : water content (dry basis) Qs : heat capacity of the monolayer

mo : water content at monolayer R: gas constant (1.986 cal/mol K)
c : surface heat constant

I: Intercept
S: Slope
* Limitation - only use up to aw of up to 0.55
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 GAB (Guggenheim, Anderson and de Bo) isotherm
equation
improved BET version

polynomial solution - stepwise regression

This equation is similar to BET, but has an extra constant, k (in the range 0.6-1 )
The GAB model provides a high level of accuracy up to at least aw of 0.9

The GAB model takes into account the effect of temperature on isotherm

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Typical Monolayer

Labuza, 2002
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 Water Activity (aw) and Water Content
Moisture Sorption Isotherm Hysteresis
Hysteresis: A mathematical term, when a function exhibits 2 possible
values for one value of independent variable

Microstructure of food
Non-reversible
structural changes
Desorption No-equilibrium effects

Adsorption

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Thus a successful combination of water
activity and glass transition could open
more precise and unified determination
of stability criteria

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Water activity (aw) & equilibrium relative humidity ERH :
Water activity is a measure of the water in a food (or other
substance) available to organisms

If you place a sample of food in a sealed container, (e.g. your

lab experiment):

the moisture in the food will come to an equilibrium

with the air-space ( air inside the container)

Samples aw is defined as the

equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) of ERH
aw
this air divided by 100. 100
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 Example:
The following sorption isotherm graph is constructed for a
shelf stable cornmeal product at 30, 35 and 40C:

a) Label the sorption isotherms to

their corresponding temperatures
and explain the effect of
temperature.

a) The monolayer moisture content value (determined by a GAB ,at 30 C) was

approximately 0.12 g/g in dry basis. If the moisture content of the formulated
product is 18% w/w of dry solids, would there be any chemical or safety
consideration? What should be your recommendation on the target water
activity of the product?
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 Review Questions:

Specify if the following quotes are false or true

a) Water is a good solvent for non-polar molecules
b) Maximum hydrogen bonding keeps the molecules of ice farther
apart than in liquid water so ice is less dense.
c) The crystalline lattice of ice causes it to be denser than liquid
water.
d) The lower the water activity, the higher the food product shelf
life

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