In this study, water activity (aw) of various model preparations of Kamaboko was measured and ability of lowering aw of starch, glycine and sodium lactate was discussed. In addition, the aw measurements were also compared to the predicted values of aw which were derived from the equation of Raoult's law and the linear slope method by Sloan and Labuza. The effect of starch on lowering as was very low, and glycine was more effective than starch. Sodium lactate was shown to be the most effective among humectants examined. When 7.5% was added, the aw of model Kamaboko A prepared with frozen fish meat paste of moisture content 87.1% was reduced to 0.93-0.94. Generally, prediction by the equation of Raoult's law turned out to be useful for determining aw lowering effect of humectants, excepting sodium chloride and sodium lactate. The equation of regression derived from the least squares could be applied to predicting aw in the model Kamaboko

Water Holding Capacity (WHC) is an important functional property of the components that we can usually find in food systems. In this work we propose a test applying sample centrifugation in standardized conditions to evaluate WHC. Parameters conditioning measures that we used for WHC expression were studied on freeze-dried soy protein gel. We also report the results obtained with other protein materials [corn germ flour, protein lupine concentrate and blood plasma protein concentrate]. | La capacita di trattenere acqua [WHC: Water Holding Capacity] e un'importante proprieta funzionale dei materiali che correntemente entrano nelle formulazioni alimentari. In questa nota, per valutare la WHC, viene proposto un test basato sulla centrifugazione dei campioni sotto condizioni standardizzate. Lo studio dei parametri che condizionano gli indici utilizzati per esprimere la WHC e stato effettuato su dispersioni di isolato di soia pregelificato e liofilizzato. Vengono infine riportati i risultati ottenuti esaminando dispersioni di altri materiali proteici [farina di germe di mais, concentrato di lupino, sangue di macellazione].

Results of arsenic determinations in 9 fish species from the North-East Atlantic, Szczecin Lagoon and lakes: Dabie, Dlugie and Mysliborskie are presented. Arsenic contents were found to range within 0.00-3.37 microgram per kg. Much higher contents were found in marine than freshwater fishes, what resulted from higher concentrations of the element in seawater