MOISTURE DIFFUSIVITY DATA COMPILATION FOR FOODSTUFFS: EFFECT OF MATERIAL MOISTURE CONTENT AND TEMPERATURE

There is a wide variation of the reported experimental data of moisture diffusivity of solid food materials, making difficult their utilization in drying and other applications. Published values of moisture diffusivity in various foods were retrieved from the literature, and these were classified and analyzed statistically to reveal the influence of material moisture content and temperature. Empirical models, relating moisture diffusivity to material moisture content and temperature, were fitted to all examined data for each material. The data were screened carefully using residual analysis techniques. The most promising model was proposed, which is based on an Arrhenius-type effect of temperature and it uses a parallel structural model to take into account the effect of material moisture content.