TITLE:
Water sorption isotherms of globe artichoke leaves
AUTHORS:
Luis Mayor, Alejandro Calvo, Ramon Moreira, Pedro Fito, Esperanza Garcia-Castello
KEYWORDS:
Food Waste; Modeling; Moisture; Water Activity
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.4 No.9B,
November
6,
2013
ABSTRACT: One third of the artichoke production is used in
industrial processes, where up to 70% - 85% of the initial raw material is
transformed into solid wastes. For an adequate management of these wastes, it is
necessary to know their water sorption properties, because physical, chemical
andbiological changes which occur during
theirstorage depend on water-solid
interactions. The objectives of this work are to experimentally determine equilibrium sorption (adsorption anddesorption) data of artichoke wastes at different temperatures (25°C - 55°C),
as well as correlate and predict water sorption isotherms using bibliographic
models. Equilibrium moisture content ranged 0 - 0.6 kg water/kg dry solid
(water activity 0.05 - 0.9). Water sorption isotherms were classified between
Types II and III. Hysteresis phenomenon was not observed, neither was the dependence
of the equilibrium data with temperature. BET, GAB, Oswin and Peleg correlation
models were satisfactorily fitted to experimental data. A predictive model
based on composition and physical state of artichoke waste components was also
successfully used to reproduce experimental data.