Abstract:
The quality of meat products strongly depends on the water content. The study presents a Karl Fischer water
titration (KFT) approach on salami products during the drying process. Two traditional salami products manufactured and
commercialized in the West of Romania have been analyzed. The water content during the drying process as well as the
kinetics of the KFT water reaction have been evaluated by using the volumetric bi-component technique. The total water
content varies from 50-56% at the starting of drying to 26-27% after nine days of processing. The mean KFT water
reaction rates corresponding to the “surface” water molecules decreases during drying from 5-6 mM· s-1 to 1-2 mM·s-1. The
“strongly-retained” water reaction rate had low variation in the range of 0.5-1 mM·s-1. Consequently, the KFT method is
an appropriate method for the quality evaluation of such non-homogenous and mostly hydrophobic food products by
means of water content and behavior during KFT analysis.
Keywords:
food quality, Karl Fischer water titration, salami, water kinetics
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