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Moisture determination in dates by forced ventilation infra‐red drying
Author(s) -
Zimmermann G.
Publication year - 1961
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740120314
Subject(s) - moisture , distillation , water content , chromatography , analytical chemistry (journal) , materials science , pulp and paper industry , environmental science , chemistry , composite material , geotechnical engineering , engineering
For quality control in the date drying industry, a method for moisture determination which was both simple and rapid, but none the less reliable, was required. The disadvantages of conventional methods which employ vacuum drying, refractive index, distillation and dielectric measurements are described. Comparison of results obtained by standard vacuum drying and by toluene distillation is made and the applicability of the latter as a reference method is established. Infra‐red drying with forced ventilation gives highly reliable and reproducible results with five varieties of dates, a 5‐g. sample of date meat and a 250‐W lamp being used. Heating is for 10 min. at 50W and then 15 min. at 60 W with a vacuum of 160 mm. Hg and a distance between lamp and sample of 30 mm.