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Role of Water Activity

  • Chapter
Food Properties and Computer-Aided Engineering of Food Processing Systems

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((NSSE,volume 168))

Abstract

Water is an important constituent of almost all foods. Its importance derives from:

  1. 1.

    It is the most important solvent for polar solutes and plasticizer for polymeric components.

  2. 2.

    It is necessary for life.

  3. 3.

    3. It is highly volatile at normal conditions of food processing and storage and ubiquitous in the atmosphere. Therefore extraordinary measures are required if exchange of water (gain or loss) is to be controlled.

  4. 4.

    4. Some water is indispensible to the activity of biological deteriorating agents.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, M.I.T., Cambridge, MA, USA

    Marcus Karel

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  1. Marcus Karel
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Engineering, Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California, Davis, California, USA

    R. Paul Singh

  2. Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, Porto, Portugal

    Augusto G. Medina

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© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Karel, M. (1989). Role of Water Activity. In: Singh, R.P., Medina, A.G. (eds) Food Properties and Computer-Aided Engineering of Food Processing Systems. NATO ASI Series, vol 168. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2370-6_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2370-6_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7567-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-2370-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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