This second edition of Water Activity in Foods furnishes those working within food manufacturing, quality control, and safety with a newly revised guide to water activity and its role in the preservation and processing of food items. With clear, instructional prose and illustrations, the book’s international team of contributors break down the essential principles of water activity and water–food interactions, delineating water’s crucial impact upon attributes such as flavor, appearance, texture, and shelf life. The updated and expanded second edition continues to offer an authoritative overview of the subject, while also broadening its scope to include six newly written chapters covering the latest developments in water activity research. Exploring topics ranging from deliquescence to crispness, these insightful new inclusions complement existing content that has been refreshed and reconfigured to support the food industry of today.

Water Activity and Food explores the role of water activity in the water relations of microorganisms and in food processing, packaging, and storage. It reviews the literature and provides numerous examples demonstrating the use of water activity to predict the reactions of microorganisms or the stability of food components. It also highlights cases where water activity is not a reliable predictor of events and considers some interesting interactions with other environmental parameters. Comprised of 11 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of water in foods and solutions, water activity values for foods, and water relations of enzyme activity. It then discusses lipid oxidation, enzyme reactions and non-enzymatic browning, and several other food-related factors. The reader is also introduced to water relations of microbial growth; the effects of water on microbial survival; the spoilage and preservation of foods at various levels of water activity; the water relations of food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella and toxigenic molds; the importance of water activity in non-microbiological aspects of food processing and storage; and the influence of atmospheric relative humidity on sanitation and the protection of food products. This book is an important source of information for researchers in food microbiology and microbial water relations.

This book covers application of food microbiology principles into food preservation and processing. Main aspects of the food preservation techniques, alternative food preservation techniques, role of microorganisms in food processing and their positive and negative features are covered. Features subjects on mechanism of antimicrobial action of heat, thermal process, mechanisms for microbial control by low temperature, mechanism of food preservation, control of microorganisms and mycotoxin formation by reducing water activity, food preservation by additives and biocontrol, food preservation by modified atmosphere, alternative food processing techniques, and traditional fermented products processing. The book is designed for students in food engineering, health science, food science, agricultural engineering, food technology, nutrition and dietetic, biological sciences and biotechnology fields. It will also be valuable to researchers, teachers and practising food microbiologists as well as anyone interested in different branches of food.

Low water activity (aw) and dried foods such as dried dairy and meat products, grain-based and dried ready-to-eat cereal products, powdered infant formula, peanut and nut pastes, as well as flours and meals have increasingly been associated with product recalls and foodborne outbreaks due to contamination by pathogens such as Salmonella spp. and enterohemorrhagic E. coli. In particular, recent foodborne outbreaks and product recalls related to Salmonella-contaminated spices have raised the level of public health concern for spices as agents of foodborne illnesses. Presently, most spices are grown outside the U.S., mainly in 8 countries: India, Indonesia, China, Brazil, Peru, Madagascar, Mexico and Vietnam. Many of these countries are under-developed and spices are harvested and stored with little heed to sanitation. The FDA has regulatory oversight of spices in the United States; however, the agency’s control is largely limited to enforcing regulatory compliance through sampling and testing only after imported foodstuffs have crossed the U.S. border. Unfortunately, statistical sampling plans are inefficient tools for ensuring total food safety. As a result, the development and use of decontamination treatments is key. This book provides an understanding of the microbial challenges to the safety of low aw foods, and a historic backdrop to the paradigm shift now highlighting low aw foods as vehicles for foodborne pathogens. Up-to-date facts and figures of foodborne illness outbreaks and product recalls are included. Special attention is given to the uncanny ability of Salmonella to persist under dry conditions in food processing plants and foods. A section is dedicated specifically to processing plant investigations, providing practical approaches to determining sources of persistent bacterial strains in the industrial food processing environment. Readers are guided through dry cleaning, wet cleaning and alternatives to processing plant hygiene and sanitation. Separate chapters are devoted to low aw food commodities of interest including spices, dried dairy-based products, low aw meat products, dried ready-to-eat cereal products, powdered infant formula, nuts and nut pastes, flours and meals, chocolate and confectionary, dried teas and herbs, and pet foods. The book provides regulatory testing guidelines and recommendations as well as guidance through methodological and sampling challenges to testing spices and low aw foods for the presence of foodborne pathogens. Chapters also address decontamination processes for low aw foods, including heat, steam, irradiation, microwave, and alternative energy-based treatments.

This book presents the proceedings of the Tenth Basic Symposium sponsored by the Institute of Food Technologists and the International Union of Food Science and Technology. The key aim of the Symposium was to explore some basic principles relating to the influences of water activity on food quality.

Water Relations of Foods consists of proceedings of an international symposium on "Water Relations of Foods held in Glasgow, in September 1974. Organized into seven sections, the book presents the various papers delivered in the symposium. It describes the physical chemistry of water in simple systems as well as in the more complex food component systems (carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins), with emphasis on the nature of the intermolecular forces involved. It also reports the various techniques used to measure the state of water in food and in model systems made up of food components. Furthermore, the book discusses water activity and the growth of food spoilage and pathogenic organism; water relations of enzymic and non-enzymic deteriorative reactions in food; effects of freezing and thawing of water in food systems; and the significant aspects of food quality as affected by water in the system. Lastly, the modification of the state of water in foods is addressed. This publication will indeed help advance the understanding on this field of interest.

A Dictionary of Chemical Engineering is one of the latest additions to the market leading Oxford Paperback Reference series. In over 3,400 concise and authoritative A to Z entries, it provides definitions and explanations for chemical engineering terms in areas including: materials, energy balances, reactions, separations, sustainability, safety, and ethics. Naturally, the dictionary also covers many pertinent terms from the fields of chemistry, physics, biology, and mathematics. Useful entry-level web links are listed and regularly updated on a dedicated companion website to expand the coverage of the dictionary. Comprehensively cross-referenced and complemented by over 60 line drawings, this excellent new volume is the most authoritative dictionary of its kind. It is an essential reference source for students of chemical engineering, for professionals in this field (as well as related disciplines such as applied chemistry, chemical technology, and process engineering), and for anyone with an interest in the subject.