DEPARTMENT OF FOOD TECHNOLOGY

SEMINAR TOPIC
ON

WATER ACTIVITY

SUBMITTED TO:

SUBMITTED BY:

AMIT P. SINGH

SHWETA GAURAV SRIVASTAVA

Deptt. of Food Technology

M.Tech. Ist Year

WATER ACTIVITY

Introduction:
Water is the major component of most foods and each has
its own characteristic water content. The amount and location
of water influences the structure appearance and taste of the
food and its susceptibility to spoilage.
During freezing the aquous solutions, cellular suspensions
or tissues the water from solutions transfer to ice crystals
nearly

all

the

non-aquous

constituents

are

therefore

concentrated in a unfrogen quantity of water the effect is

similar to dehydration except, the temperature is lower and
water is deposited in the form of ice crystals. Because of freeze
concentration effect the unfrozen phase changes significantly
in such properties as: pH, titrable acidity, ionic strength,
viscosity etc. water structure & water solute interactions may
be altered & macro- molecules will be forced to become closure.

Water (H2O)
A major component of food is H2O. Its molecule
contain one O2 & 2H2

atoms connected by covalent

bonds.
* Water Activity: It is measure of the energy status of the H2O in a system.
It is defined as the vapour pressure of the liquid, divided
by that of pure H2O activity of exactly 1.
As the temp. increases, water activity typically increases,
except in some products with crystalline salt or sugar.
It is denoted by (aw).
Higher

the

aw

substances

tend

to

support

more

microorganism bacteria usually at least 0.91 & fungi at

least 0.7 aw.
H2O migrates from areas of high aw to area of low aw . E.g.
If honey (aw 0.6).

 Formulae:Acc. To definition of aw :aw =

f = fugacity or escaping tendency of a substances
f0 = fugacity or escaping tendency of a pure substances
p = Vapour pressure of H2O in the substances.
Po = Vapour pressure of H2O at the same temp.
Alternate definition: - The relative humidity of air in
equilibrium with a sample is called the equilibrium
relative humidity (ERH).
ERH = aw x 100%
or aw =
Estimated mold-free shelf life in a days at 21oC :MFSL = 107.91 8.1aw
Water activity are obtained by either capacitance or a
dew point hydrometer.
or,
3

N=
n2 =
where,
G = gm of solvent in sample
= freezing pt. depression in oC.
= molal freezing pt. depression constant for water
& it will be 1.86
Classification of water : - It presents in the 2 forms:a) Free H2O e.g. Lemon

b) Bound H2O e.g. Honey

a) Free H2O: Water that cant be extracted easily from

foods by squeezing or cutting or pressing is known as
free H2O. Free H2O will grown easily e.g. of free water :
- Lemon (Short life).
b) Bound H2O : Water that cannot be extracted easily is
termed as bound H2O. It cant move freely. It has a very
longer life because of water is in bound form and solid
particles are available for bounding to water. Moisture
content is less than free H2O. Many food constituents
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can bind or hold water molecule such that they cannot

be easily removed & they do not behave like liquid H2O.
e.g. Honey.
Characteristic of bound water:

It is not free to act as a solvent for salt & sugars.

It can be frozen only at very low temp. (below the

freezing pt. of H2O).

Negligible vapour pressure.

Density is greater than that of free H2O because

molecules in bound H2O are more closely packed that
in the liquid state.

Bound H2O has more structure bonding than free

H2O.

Types of bound water: a)

Constitutional water: - In this category water can

simply

be

described

structural

H2O.

Water

crystallization & water of hydration are e.g. of

constitutional

H2O.

It

is

unfreezable

at

-40oC.

Generally we cant remove constitutional H2O due to

very high bonding. It has no water activity. It is used
in the formation of food as a ingredients.
b)

Monolayer or Vicinal water: - Like constituent H2O,

Vicinal water is not freezable at 40oC & cannot act
some translational freedom. It has some H2O activity.
Conventional drying techniques are able to remove
most of the vicinal water. It is strongly bound but less
than constitutional water.

c)

Multilayer H2O: - The degree of freeze ability

depends upon the degree of boundness of the H2O
boundness. In multilayer water, Ist layer easily
removed, IInd layer lil bit stronger, IIIrd is more
stronger.

Isotherm: Plots inter-relating water concentration of water

per unit mass of dry matter of a food with its water

activity at const. temp. are known as sorption

isotherm.
Isotherm

is

important

for

concentration

and

dehydration process because the ease or difficulty

of water removal is related in water activity.
A sigmoidal shape is characteristic to isotherm and
isotherm can be depicted as follows:-

Water present in Zone I:

It is the most strongly absorbed and most

immobile, this water is absorbed to polar sites
by water ion or water dipole interaction.

The enthalpy of vaporization is much greater

then pure water and is unfreezable at - 40oC,
this water is not available for solvent purposes.

The high moisture in zone I (boundary of zone I

and zone II) represent the mono layer moisture
content of the food.

Mono layer value is approx. amount of water

needed form a mono-layer over the excessible
highly polar groups of the dry matter (approx. 1
mol water to 1 mol of highly polar groups).

In other words, mono-layer corresponds to the

max. amount of water that can be very strongly
bound to the dry matter.

Thus

represents

constitutional

and

vicinal

category water.

Zone I water constitutes very small fraction of

total water in high moisture foods.

Water in Zone II:

It is zone I plus water added (resorption).

Zone II water occupies remaining first layer sites

and several additional layers around hydrophilic
groups and is multilayer.

Water, which attach to neighbouring molecules

by water water or water solute H-bonding.

The enthalpy of vaporisation of multilayer is

slightly greater then pure water and most of this
water is unfreezable at -40oC.

The water of zone I and II prostitutes less than

5% of total water in a high moisture food
material.

Water in Zone III:

It consist zone I, II and water within the limit of

zone III.

This water in least strongly bound and most

mobile.

It is designated as bulk phase water.

Water added or removed within the limits of zone

III show the enthalpy same as pure water, is
freezeable, available as solvent and enough in
quantity to provide chemical reactions and
microbial growth to occur.

This water either entrapped or free prostitutes

more than 95% of total water content in high
moisture food materials.

The addition of water to a dry material can alter

the some properties of water which is present
generally tightly bound water remains const.

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and the least bound water governs the stability

of foods.

Because of the dependency of water activity on

temperature moisture sorption isotherm also
exhibits temperature dependence at any given
moisture content water activity increases with
increasing temp. according to Clavoius

Chapreyon equation.

Moisture requirement: The concept of aw:Microorganisms have an absolute demand for H2O,
for without H2O no growth can occur. This H2O
requirement is best expressed in terms of available
H2O or water activity aw. The aw for pure H2O would
be exact 1.

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Groups of foods and their aw:Food

Value of aw

1) Fresh meat & fish,

Fresh fruits &
0.98 and above
vegetables, Milk & most
beverages.
2) Evaporated milk,
0.93 to 0.98
Tomato paste, Bread
3) Dried fruits, flower,
cereals, Jam & Jellies &

0.60 to 0.85

Nuts.
4) Chocolate, Honey
Biscuits, Crackers,
Below 0.60
Potato chips, dried milk
& eggs

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* Water is made unavailable in various ways:

Solutes & ions tie up H2O in solution. Therefore, an

increase in the concentration of dissolve substances such
as sugar & salts is on effects a drying of the material. Not
only is H2O tied up by solutes, but H2O tends to leaves the
microbial

cell

by

osmosis,

if

there

is

higher

concentration of solute outside the cells than inside.

Gels make H2O unavailable. As little as 3 to 4 % agar in a

medium may prevent bacterial growth by leaving too little
available moisture.

H2O of crystallization or hydration is usually unavailable

to microorganism H2O itself, when crystallized as ice, no
longer can be used by microbial cell. The aw of H2O ice
mixtures decrease with the decrease in temp. below 0oC.
Most bacteria grow cell in a medium with a H2O
activity aw approaching 1. i.e. they grow best in a low
concentration of sugar or salt, culture media for most
bacteria contain not more than 1% sugar and 0.85% NaCl
13

(Salt) as title as 3 to 4% sugar & aw & the lower limit for

growth vary with the bacterium as well as with food,
temp., pH & the presence of O2 & CO2.
Molds differ considerable in optimal aw and range of
aw for germination of the asexual spores. The range for
spore germination is greater at temp. near the optimum
for germination & in a better culture medium. The
minimum aw for spore germination has been found to be
as low as 0.62 for some molds and as high as 0.93 for
others. Each mold has optimum aw & range of aw for
growth. The reduction of aw below the optimum for a mold
delays spore germination & reduces the rate of growth.
Therefore,

it

can

be

an

important

factor

in

food

preservation.
*

Moisture requirements of microorganism leads to

some general conclusions: Each organism has its own characterization optimal aw &
its own range aw for growth.
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 An unfavourable aw will results not only in a reduction in

the rate of growth but also in a lowered maximal yield of
cells.
The more unfavourable the aw of the substance or
substrate, the greater the delay (lag) in initiation of growth
or germination of spores. This often is as important in food
preservation as is reduction in the rate of growth of the
organisms.
In generate, bacteria require more moisture than yeasts,
and yeasts more than molds.

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