Abstract
Moisture migration in manufactured foods can significantly affect their quality, nutrition, sensory attributes and shelf life. It can occur between foods and the surrounding atmosphere or between different compartments of manufactured foods when they have different water activities. Currently, most of the published research focuses on room temperature conditions. In this research, the temperature dependence of important material mass transport properties is studied considering sub-zero temperatures as well. To achieve this, experimental data at different temperatures were obtained and analysed using mathematical models.
The effect of temperature on moisture migration in multicomponent food systems can subsequently be assessed using a one-dimensional model which was developed for this research. This model can consider food systems comprising one or more dry materials in contact with a wet material wrapped in a moisture impermeable packaging and was validated against previously published experimental data. Using this model, moisture migration in the wafer of a manufactured ice cream cone as a function of storage temperature and time was assessed. It was observed that while the wafer is anticipated to lose its crispness during the time kept in factory cold store, the average moisture content would still remain below the threshold for a wafer to be considered “soggy”.