Construct · 1 fields · 2 citations

water activity: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

● anchor · a single construct in food science Nearest construct by meaning·not indexed
wateractivity1 CONSTRUCTWater activitySCOTT · 1953

A single standalone construct; nearby constructs are located against it in the Collider. Tap a field for its definition, unit, and measures.

Food science

How available a food's water is, not how much there is

Water activity is the availability of water in a food rather than its total amount: formally the ratio of the water vapour pressure over the food to that over pure water at the same temperature, running from 0 to 1. Scott (1953) showed that it is this availability, not moisture content, that governs whether microbes can grow, and the edited volume Water activity in foods (Barbosa-Cánovas et al., 2007) sets out its role across food stability. The referent is the free, reactive water that controls microbial growth, enzymatic and chemical spoilage, and shelf life, which is why lowering it by drying, salting, or adding sugar preserves food.[1][2]

Unit
The dimensionless water activity, from 0 to 1
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Measured with a dew-point or capacitance water-activity meter at controlled temperature, and mapped against moisture by sorption isotherms

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Nearby constructs

curing1 fields · 1 citationsanchor · a standalone constructosmosis3 fields · 3 citationsinvariant · one construct, three systemsavailability2 fields · 2 citationsjingle · one word, two constructs

References

  1. Scott, W. J. (1953). Water relations of Staphylococcus aureus at 30°C. Australian Journal of Biological Sciences, 6(4), 549–564. https://doi.org/10.1071/BI9530549
  2. Barbosa-Cánovas, G. V., Fontana, A. J., Schmidt, S. J., & Labuza, T. P. (Eds.). (2007). Water activity in foods: Fundamentals and applications. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 9780813824086

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