Refine search
Results 1-1 of 1
Water activity changes of multicomponent food mixture during processing Full text
Stencl, J.(Mendelova Zemedelska a Lesnicka Univ., Brno (Czech Republic). Ustav Zemedelske, Potravinarske a Environmentalni Techniky) | Komprda, T.(Mendelova Zemedelska a Lesnicka Univ., Brno (Czech Republic). Ustav Technologie Potravin)
The objective of this study was to determine the changes in water activity and moisture content in the dry fermented sausages Herkules, a typical multicomponent food, during ripening and storage. The sausages were made with lean beef, lean pork, pork fat, nitrite salt mixture, and sugars, and fermented with two starter cultures (Pediococcus pentosaceus + Staphylococcus carnosus and S. carnosus + S. xylosus + Lactobacillus farciminis). The samples were taken and tested during ripening (21 days) and storage (91 days). The water activity was measured by indirect manometric method in a static environment, the moisture content by halogen dryer. The water activity and moisture content decreased considerably, but very irregularily during the ripening, whereas they declined only slowly and linearly during the storage. The decrease during the storage was expressed by mathematical equations describing the changes of water activity and moisture content in function of the time. The use of different starter cultures had no influence on the two variables studied.
Show more [+] Less [-]