ABSTRACT
There is a wide variation of the reported experimental data of moisture diffusivity of solid food materials, making difficult their utilization in food process and food quality applications.
The variation of moisture ditfusivity in model and real foods is discussed in Chapter 5. The physical structure of solid foods plays a decisive role not only on the absolute value of moisture ditfusivity, but also on the effect of moisture content and temperature on this transport property. Porosity data, obtained from measurements of bulk and particle densities (Chapter 3) at various moisture contents, provide useful data on the type of water transport (liquid or vapor diffusion) and the approximate value of moisture ditfusivity.
