This second edition of Water Activity in Foods furnishes those working within food manufacturing, quality control, and safety with a newly revised guide to water activity and its role in the preservation and processing of food items. With clear, instructional prose and illustrations, the book’s international team of contributors break down the essential principles of water activity and water–food interactions, delineating water’s crucial impact upon attributes such as flavor, appearance, texture, and shelf life. The updated and expanded second edition continues to offer an authoritative overview of the subject, while also broadening its scope to include six newly written chapters covering the latest developments in water activity research. Exploring topics ranging from deliquescence to crispness, these insightful new inclusions complement existing content that has been refreshed and reconfigured to support the food industry of today.

Water Activity and Food explores the role of water activity in the water relations of microorganisms and in food processing, packaging, and storage. It reviews the literature and provides numerous examples demonstrating the use of water activity to predict the reactions of microorganisms or the stability of food components. It also highlights cases where water activity is not a reliable predictor of events and considers some interesting interactions with other environmental parameters. Comprised of 11 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of water in foods and solutions, water activity values for foods, and water relations of enzyme activity. It then discusses lipid oxidation, enzyme reactions and non-enzymatic browning, and several other food-related factors. The reader is also introduced to water relations of microbial growth; the effects of water on microbial survival; the spoilage and preservation of foods at various levels of water activity; the water relations of food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella and toxigenic molds; the importance of water activity in non-microbiological aspects of food processing and storage; and the influence of atmospheric relative humidity on sanitation and the protection of food products. This book is an important source of information for researchers in food microbiology and microbial water relations.

Water Activity: Influences on Food Quality is a collection of papers presented at the 1978 International Symposium by the same title, held in Osaka, Japan. This book is a treatise on the influence of bound and free water on the quality and stability of foods and other natural products. This book is organized into seven sections encompassing 33 chapters. The first sections deal with the characterization of moisture sorption isotherms based on both theoretical and applied considerations, as well as the relationship of bound water to the physical and chemical properties of natural products, including foods. The succeeding sections consider the structure of water and the influence of solutes and solute mobility on water activity and the influence of water and water activity on the structural and functional characteristics of proteins, carbohydrates, and proteins. Other sections explore the influence of water activity and temperature on the rates of several important chemical reactions, such as lipid oxidation, vitamin decomposition, browning, and other reactions, which affect the chemical, physical, and nutritional properties of food. These sections also discuss the influence of water activity on food processing and storage practices from both theoretical and applied viewpoints, specifically the application of water activity principals to the processing and preservation of leafy vegetables, cheese, dried fish, and other products. The final section is devoted to the influences of water activity on the behavior of food-related microorganisms. This section emphasizes the role of solvents in controlling water activity and the related survival of certain microorganisms. This book will prove useful to food scientists and researchers.

Water Relations of Foods consists of proceedings of an international symposium on "Water Relations of Foods held in Glasgow, in September 1974. Organized into seven sections, the book presents the various papers delivered in the symposium. It describes the physical chemistry of water in simple systems as well as in the more complex food component systems (carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins), with emphasis on the nature of the intermolecular forces involved. It also reports the various techniques used to measure the state of water in food and in model systems made up of food components. Furthermore, the book discusses water activity and the growth of food spoilage and pathogenic organism; water relations of enzymic and non-enzymic deteriorative reactions in food; effects of freezing and thawing of water in food systems; and the significant aspects of food quality as affected by water in the system. Lastly, the modification of the state of water in foods is addressed. This publication will indeed help advance the understanding on this field of interest.

This book presents the proceedings of the Tenth Basic Symposium sponsored by the Institute of Food Technologists and the International Union of Food Science and Technology. The key aim of the Symposium was to explore some basic principles relating to the influences of water activity on food quality.

The complexity of food chemistry makes it a challenging subject for students studying in a food science course. Although there are excellent food chemistry books available in the market they have two major flaws: they are either encyclopedic or they are not pitched correctly to undergraduate food science students. The first problem creates difficulties for students to identify what is important and how much they need to know. The second problem arises when the book is written by authors that are not food scientists (e.g., chemists), they are not academics that are engaged with teaching or they are not sufficiently qualified to teach. In this case, it is difficult to find links between the chemistry of foods and its relevance to applications or, quite frequently, future employment prospects of the student. Introduction to Food Chemistry bridges this gap in the relevant literature, as it employs the latest pedagogical theories in textbook writing to present the subject to students with broad range of cognitive skills. This book presents specific learning objectives for each chapter and is self-contained so students will not need to search for essential information outside the textbook. To support learning, the book has: Didactic elements with information being conveyed with 3D-figures, color-coded schemes and graphs, annotations on figures that link it to the text descriptions Built-in pedagogy and learning activities at the end of each chapter that are linked to the learning objectives. Keywords and concepts for online search to instigate curiosity for further studies. Conversational writing style without losing academic rigor To support lecturers, the book has: Helps focus teaching preparation on key aspects of food chemistry relevant to both industry and modern research. Aids the preparation of exams, assignments and other types of assessment or learning activities. For lecturers in search of a singular source to aid in their introductory food chemistry courses, look no further than Introduction to Food Chemistry.

Food Quality and Shelf Life covers all aspects and challenges of food preservation, packaging and shelf-life. It provides information on the most important pillars in the field, starting with active and smart packaging materials, novel technologies, and control tools in all stages between production and consumer. The book gives emphasis to methodological approaches for sensory shelf-life estimation and the impact of packaging on sensorial properties. Researchers and professionals alike will find this reference useful, especially those who are interested in the performance evaluation of future packaging for fresh produce in the cold chain and temperature management in the supply chain.

Food Shelf Life Stability provides a unique approach to understanding this critical subject by examining physical, chemical, and biochemical factors affecting food quality. The first section emphasizes the effects that water activity, glass transition, and plasticization have on temperature, water content, and time-dependant phenomena affecting

Water is recognized as being an important factor in numerous pheno mena connected with the quality of food. For instance, it plays a part in the textural properties of several commodities. Moreover, water is an essential parameter determining the behaviour of food products in the course of many processing operations : on water, will depend the amount of energy necessary for freezing or dehydrating the product; water will strongly influence the evolution of physical, chemical and biochemical phenomena taking place in the product during processing operations such as heating, drying, etc. Water will also influence the same reactions, as well as the activity of microorganisms, during the storage of food products under various conditions. As a result, all aspects of quality - sensory, nutritional and hygienic properties of the food - will be affected. In all these circumstances, the water content of a product is obviously an important factor, but equally important may be the physical properties of this water, such as its thermodynamic activity and its mobility. Actual ly, the concept of water activity (a ) is now widely used by the food industry and in the legislation of sever')¥l countries. The idea of a small, international meeting devoted to a synthetic review and discussion of knowledge on these various matters, was first developed by Dr. R. B.

Low water activity (aw) and dried foods such as dried dairy and meat products, grain-based and dried ready-to-eat cereal products, powdered infant formula, peanut and nut pastes, as well as flours and meals have increasingly been associated with product recalls and foodborne outbreaks due to contamination by pathogens such as Salmonella spp. and enterohemorrhagic E. coli. In particular, recent foodborne outbreaks and product recalls related to Salmonella-contaminated spices have raised the level of public health concern for spices as agents of foodborne illnesses. Presently, most spices are grown outside the U.S., mainly in 8 countries: India, Indonesia, China, Brazil, Peru, Madagascar, Mexico and Vietnam. Many of these countries are under-developed and spices are harvested and stored with little heed to sanitation. The FDA has regulatory oversight of spices in the United States; however, the agency’s control is largely limited to enforcing regulatory compliance through sampling and testing only after imported foodstuffs have crossed the U.S. border. Unfortunately, statistical sampling plans are inefficient tools for ensuring total food safety. As a result, the development and use of decontamination treatments is key. This book provides an understanding of the microbial challenges to the safety of low aw foods, and a historic backdrop to the paradigm shift now highlighting low aw foods as vehicles for foodborne pathogens. Up-to-date facts and figures of foodborne illness outbreaks and product recalls are included. Special attention is given to the uncanny ability of Salmonella to persist under dry conditions in food processing plants and foods. A section is dedicated specifically to processing plant investigations, providing practical approaches to determining sources of persistent bacterial strains in the industrial food processing environment. Readers are guided through dry cleaning, wet cleaning and alternatives to processing plant hygiene and sanitation. Separate chapters are devoted to low aw food commodities of interest including spices, dried dairy-based products, low aw meat products, dried ready-to-eat cereal products, powdered infant formula, nuts and nut pastes, flours and meals, chocolate and confectionary, dried teas and herbs, and pet foods. The book provides regulatory testing guidelines and recommendations as well as guidance through methodological and sampling challenges to testing spices and low aw foods for the presence of foodborne pathogens. Chapters also address decontamination processes for low aw foods, including heat, steam, irradiation, microwave, and alternative energy-based treatments.