Fast and accurate moisture measurement for food processing applications

The food processing industry has a fundamental need to monitor and measure the water content of its produce as too much or too little moisture can adversely affect a product’s texture, flavour and appearance. Additionally, moisture-rich foodstuffs are prone to early rotting and damage, so being able to check water levels can help optimise shelf life. There are also regulations that mandate enforceable water limits for many food products; testing can therefore help safeguard regulatory compliance.

Information on the water content in food materials is also useful in predicting their behaviour as they pass through a processing line. This helps ensure the problem-free movement of ingredients as they move from mixers and blenders through to processing and packaging machinery.

The importance of water content measurement in the food sector clearly cannot be underestimated, especially with today’s consumers being more aware of food quality issues than ever before. Several test methodologies are available but the most broadly applied technique for the determination of water content is Karl Fischer titration. It is a fast, accurate and consistent method used across a wide variety of sectors from food and pharma through to chemical and petrochemical.

Karl Fischer titration is so widely employed because it has significant advantages over heating and drying techniques where the food samples can generate additional water due to a reaction between reducing sugars and amino acids (the Maillard reaction). That extra moisture gets recorded, giving a false (high) result.

In addition, volatile components contained in the test samples evaporate and also bias the drying loss, whereas Karl Fischer titration is not influenced by volatile loss, negating this issue. This makes the method the most accurate and reliable for food processing and production businesses.

In today’s competitive market, where maintaining production speeds and food quality are the prerequisites for success, food companies want their test results to be as accurate and as quick as possible. To match this speed high quality reagents are required.

Hydranal™ has become a generic brand for Karl Fischer titration – similar to Xerox, Kleenex and Hoover – and is globally recognised for its quality and lot-to-lot consistency. It helps to speed up the testing process by increasing the dissolution of samples using special working media and other troubleshooting reagents.

However, food companies need more than just access to a catalogue of high-purity chemicals. They need to find suppliers that possess in-depth industry knowhow, that can understand their needs and are able to respond accordingly. This type of interaction can form the basis of a relationship that accompanies food processors all the way from R&D through to production and quality control. Honeywell, for example, has a strong technical support team at its Hydranal Center of Excellence, which can answer technical questions for customers and can even help with method development. The Hydranal laboratory in Seelze is accredited to both ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO Guide 34, which together are the highest achievable level of quality assurance.

Please click here to discover more or buy now here.