Prediction of water activity, aw, in cook-soak equilibrated intermediate moisture meats

Abstract

The relationship between the moisture content and water activity, a w, of several meat samples adjusted to intermediate moisture water activities by cook-soak equilibration in glycerol solutions containing 9·5% sodium chloride was determined. Within experimental error the relationship was found to be unique for all the lean meats studied. It was also found that a modification of the Grover method (Grover, 1947) in which a w is determined from the well established relationship between a w and sucrose equivalent, E s, was an excellent predictor of the final a w of the ssystem. E s was calculated from E s = E 1X 1 + E 1X 2 + … etc. where E 1 are specific constants for each humectant and X 1 and X 2 are given as weight of humectant in the system/weight of water in the system. E values of 9·0 and 2·2 for sodium chloride and glycerol were applicable for initial salt concentrations of 0 to 20 (w/w)_and glycerol concentrations of 0 to 90% (w/w) The method was equally applicable to propylene glycol ( E value 3·2)/salt systems and sorbitol ( E value 1·0)/salt systems.