DETERMINATION OF THE MOISTURE-CONTENT OF BARLEY

The method of the International Organization for Standardization, (ISO 712-1985) for the determination of moisture in cereals and cereal pro ducts, has been tested by members of the Analysis Committee of the Eur opean Brewery Convention on samples of barley. The method, which relie s on loss in mass on drying at 130-133 degrees C for 2 h, is recommend ed for use as a replacement for the current method, based on loss in m ass on drying at 105-107 degrees C for 3 h. It was judged that precisi on values were independent of concentration over the range 11 to 13% m /m. Repeatability (r(95)) and Reproducibility R(95)) values of 0.13 an d 0.55 respectively were obtained over this range. At a mean level of 21.7% m/m, the r(95) and R(95) values were 0.27 and 2.6 respectively. This was probably due to errors associated with the double drying tech nique which is necessary for samples at this moisture content.