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Food and food ingredients can absorb up to 50% by mass of moisture from the air

Food and food ingredients are often very hygroscopic materials. The final performance and stability of these materials necessitates careful consideration of moisture uptake in the materials, as well as the associated packaging system. Problems with drying, caking, product stability are common and can often be traced to moisture issues. Water sorption isotherms obtained using our DVS instruments is industry standard way of understanding these challenging problems.

Drying and dehydration

The moisture sorption properties of many solid state materials, especially organic materials are critical for the characterisation of their drying and shelf life stability. In the past 10 years the DVS method invented by Surface Measurement Systems has become the standard laboratory method for studying drying and dehydration behaviour.

Application Note 08: Moisture Sorption of Coffee Granules Studied using the DVS-µScope | Request a copy

Application Note 11: Moisture Stability of Powdered Milk Formulations | Request a copy

Application Note 20: Caking of Lemon Flavour Powdered Drink Using DVS Humidity Cycling | Request a copy

Application Note 21: Moisture Sorption on Tobacco of Various Origins | Request a copy

Application Note 22: A Simple Shelf Life Prediction of Crackers | Request a copy

Application Note 23: The Water Sorption Properties of Ramyun Noodles | Request a copy

Application Note 27: Hygroscopicity of Japanese Green Tea Powder | Request a copy

Application Note 503: Investigating Dried Milk Powders Using Optical Microscopy at Different Humidity Conditions
| Request a copy

A real concern for many industrialist can be the propensity of food powders to cake. This problem is invariably linked to the water sorption behaviour of the powders in question, and some times moisture related material phase changes. The DVS instrument, especially using the video microscope accessory, can be a very powerful way to study powder caking behaviour.

Application Note 11: Moisture Stability of Powdered Milk Formulations | Request a copy

The moisture sorption properties of foods and fine chemical can be crucial in determining their performance, stability and shelf life behavior. In the past 20 years the DVS method invented by Surface Measurement Systems has become the standard laboratory method for measuring water sorption isotherms for these classes of materials.

Application Note 08: Moisture Sorption of Coffee Granules Studied using the DVS-µScope | Request a copy

Application Note 11: Moisture Stability of Powdered Milk Formulations | Request a copy

Application Note 20: Caking of Lemon Flavour Powdered Drink Using DVS Humidity Cycling | Request a copy

Application Note 21: Moisture Sorption on Tobacco of Various Origins | Request a copy

Application Note 22: A Simple Shelf Life Prediction of Crackers | Request a copy

Application Note 23: The Water Sorption Properties of Ramyun Noodles | Request a copy

Application Note 27: Hygroscopicity of Japanese Green Tea Powder | Request a copy

Amorphous polymers all exhibit a glass transition temperature, and for hydrophilic polymers these are highly sensitive to their moisture content. Both DVS and SEA instruments have proven to be very effective at studying the glass transition temperature of amorphous solids.

Application Note 35: Determining the Moisture-Induced Glass Transition in an Amorphous Pharmaceutical Material
| Request a copy

pdficon_small Application Note 204: Determination of the glass transition temperatures Tg of maltose and its dependence on relative humidity by infinite dilution inverse gas chromatography

Water activity is a measure of the thermodynamic activity of a material in the presence of water vapour and is commonly used in the food industry. The DVS is an ideal way to measure the water activity of solid materials across a wide range of temperatures and can work with very small sample sizes.

Application Note 01: Validation of Relative Humidity using Saturated Salt Solutions | Request a copy

Application Note 60: Iso-activity Analysis of Phenol Crystals | Request a copy

Application Note 62: Water Activity(Aw)Measurements Using a Payne Cell with a Flux-Calibrated Membrane and DVS
| Request a copy

Studying water diffusion and permeability in food packaging is central to understanding and optimising their performance. The DVS instruments allows such phenomena to be studied using water vapour across a wide range of temperatures. The DVS instrument is ideal for obtaining both kinetic and equilibrium information on water diffusion and permeability in a wide range of packaging materials and systems.

Application Note 07: Measurement of Diffusion of Liquids and Vapours Through Real Polymer Tube Packaging Devices
| Request a copy

Application Note 12: Absolute Measurement of Moisture Diffusion into Blister Packaging Systems | Request a copy

Application Note 16: Calculation of Diffusion Constants in Thin Polymer Films using DVS | Request a copy

Application Note 52: Vapor Permeability of Porous Materials using Payne Diffusion Cell | Request a copy

The chemical, morphological and physical stability of foods and food additives to water vapour is key to both product performance and long term product storage. The DVS range of instruments are ideal for studying the moisture stability of a range of dosage forms such as granules, capsules, powders and tablets across a wide range of real world temperatures.

Application Note 03: Polymorphism in Spray Dried Lactose | Request a copy

pdficon_small Application Note 10: moisture Sorption of EC Standard Reference Material RM 302 on a DVS-1 Instrument | Request a copy

Application Note 11: Moisture Stability of Powdered Milk Formulations | Request a copy

Application Note 29: Moisture Desorption of Creams and Calculation of Diffusion Constants | Request a copy

Application Note 33: Impact of Protein Concentration on the Moisture-Induced Phase Transitions of Protein-Sugar Formulations 
| Request a copy

Screening the performance of a range of different food formulations in the presence of water vapour can be easily achieved using the DVS approach. DVS measurements are ideal for studying the formulation performance of a range of final foods such as granules, biscuits, powders, foams, as well as the raw ingredients which make up the final product.

Application Note 03: Polymorphism in Spray Dried Lactose | Request a copy

Application Note 29: Moisture Desorption of Creams and Calculation of Diffusion Constants | Request a copy

Application Note 33: Impact of Protein Concentration on the Moisture-Induced Phase Transitions of Protein-Sugar Formulations
| Request a copy