Ha. Iglesias et J. Chirife, AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE GUGGENHEIM, ANDERSON AND DE BOER MODEL FOR THE MATHEMATICAL-DESCRIPTION OF MOISTURE SORPTION ISOTHERMS OF FOODS, Food research international, 28(3), 1995, pp. 317-321
The fitting abilities of an isotherm equation originally developed by
Ferro Fontan et al. (J. Food Sci., 47, 1590-4, 1982) (FF) was compared
with the well-known GAB model. For this purpose literature data of 15
6 food isotherms (comprising 92 different food products) were examined
with both models. The results of the evaluation indicated that the FF
equation is an accurate tool for the mathematical description of food
isotherms. The FF equation represents accurately the sorption isother
m of 92 different food products (proteins, starchy, cereals and oilsee
ds, meats, vegetables, miscellaneous) in the range of water activity 0
.10-0.90 with only 2-4% average error in the predicted moisture conten
t. In fact, the average error for the 156 isotherms examined was only
3.3%. The FF equation only has three parameters that need determining
(as has the GAB model); thus it is proposed as an alternative equation
to the widely used GAB model.