Fundamentals of Water Activity: References

Decagon Devices has established a water activity reference database. It currently contains well over 500 citations and is growing. The list includes articles on water activity theory and measurement, food quality and safety, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, microbiology, and a wide variety of food systems as well as non-food applications. If you are interested in references on a particular subject or are looking for information about a particular food product contact us at references@decagon.com.
Application Notes on Water Activity

General references of water activity in foods.

Duckworth, R. (1975). Water Relations of Foods. Academic Press, New York.

Fennema, O.R. (1985). Water and Ice, Food Chemistry. Fennema, O.R. (ed.) Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York.
    pp. 23-67

Hardman, T.M. (1988). Water and Food Quality. Elsevier Press, London.

Levine, H. and L. Slade. (1991). Water Relationships in Foods. Plenum Press, New York.

Reid, D.S. (1976). Water activity concepts in intermediate moisture foods. In: Intermediate Moisture Foods.     Davies, R., G.G. Birch, and K.J. Parker (ed.) Applied Science Publishers, London. pp. 54-65.

Rockland, L.B. and G.F. Stewart. (1981). Water Activity: Influences on Food Quality. Academic Press, New York.

Seow, C.C., T.T. Teng, and C.H. Quah. (1988). Food Preservation by Moisture Control. Elsevier, New York.

Troller, J.A. and J.H.B. Christian. (1978). Water Activity and Food. Academic Press, New York.

A reference list of scientists using AquaLab in their research.

Aramouni, F.M., K.K. Kone, J.A. Craig, and D.Y.C. Fung. (1994). Growth of Clostridium sporogenes PA 3679 in     home-style canned quick breads. Journal of Food Protection. 57(10):882-886.

Bell, L.N. and T.P. Labuza. (1992). Compositional influence on the pH of reduced-moisture solutions. Journal of     Food Science. 57:732-734.

Brake, N.C. and O.R. Fennema. (1993). Edible coatings to inhibit lipid migration in a confectionery product.     Journal of Food Science. 58:1422-1425.

Brandt, L. (1996). Bound for success. Controlling water activity gives technologists the edge in developing safe,
    shelf-stable foods. Food Formulating. September:41-48.

Brocklehurst, T.F., G.A. Mitchell, W. Pleass, and A.C. Smith. (1995). The effect of step changes in sucrose     concentration on the growth of Salmonella typhimurium LT2. Journal of Applied Bacteriology. 78:495-500.

Carr, L.E., E.T. Mallinson, C.R. Tate, R.G. Miller, E. Russek-Cohen, L.E. Stewart, O.O. Opara, and S.W. Joseph.     (1995). Prevalence of Salmonella in Broiler Flocks: Effect of Litter Water Activity, House Construction, and     Watering Devices. Avian Diseases. 39:39-44.

Clavero, M.R.S. and L.R. Beuchat. (1996). Survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in broth and processed salami as     influenced by pH, water activity, and temperature and suitability of media for its recovery. Applied and     Environmental Microbiology. 62:2735-2740.

Clawson, A.R. and A.J. Taylor. (1993). Chemical changes during cooking of wheat. Food Chemistry. 47:337-343.
Fontana, A.J. (1998). Water activity: why it is important for food safety. Proceedings of the First NSF     International Conference on Food Safety. 177-185.

Fresno, J.M., M.E. Tornadijo, J. Carballo, J. Gonzalez-Prieto, and A. Bernardo. (1996). Characterization and     biochemical changes during the ripening of a Spanish craft goat's milk cheese (Armada variety). Food     Chemistry. 55:225-230.

Friedel, R.R. and A.M. Cundell. (1998). The application of water activity measurement to the microbiological     attributes testing of nonsterile over-the-counter drug products. Pharmacopeial Forum. 24(2):6087-6090.

Friedel, R.R. (1999). The application of water activity (aw) measurement to the microbiological attributes testing
    of raw materials used in the manufacture of non-sterile pharmaceutical products. Pharmacopeial Forum.     (accepted).

Gómez, R. and Fernandez-Salguero J. (1992). Water activity and chemical composition of some food emulsions.
    Food Chemistry. 45:91-93.

Harris, G.A. (1995). Food Water Relations. Food Tech Europe. Dec95/Jan96

Heidemann, D.R. and P.J. Jarosz. (1991). Performulation studies involving moisture uptake in solid dosage
    forms. Pharmaceutical Research. 8(3):292-297.

Lee, M.B. and S. Styliadis. (1996). A survey of pH and water activity levels in processed salamis and sausages     in Metro Toronto. Journal of Food Protection. 59(9):1007-1010.

Lowe, J.A. and S.J. Kershaw. (1995). Water activity-moisture content relationship as a predictive indicator for     control of spoilage in commercial pet diet components. Animal Feed Science and Technology. 56:187-194.

Marsili, R. (1993). Water activity: why it's important and how to measure it. Food Product Design. December

Michniewicz, J., C.G. Biliaderis, and W. Bushuk. (1992). Effect of added pentosans on some properties of wheat     bread. Food Chemistry. 43:251-257.

Monsalve-Gonzalez, A., G.V. Barbosa-Canovas, and R.P. Cavalieri. (1993). Mass transfer and textural changes     during processing of apples by combined methods. Journal of Food Science. 58:1118-1124.

Opara, O.O., L.E. Carr, E. Russek-Cohen, C.R. Tate, E.T. Mallinson, R.G. Miller, L.E. Stewart, R.W. Johnston, and     S.W. Joseph. (1992). Correlation of water activity and other environmental conditions with repeated detection     of Salmonella contamination on poultry farms. Avian Diseases. 36:664-671.

Richard, J. and T.P. Labuza. (1990). Rapid determination of the water activity of some reference solutions,     culture media and cheese using a new dew point apparatus. Sciences des Aliments. 10:57-64.

Roa, V. and M.S. Tapia de Daza. (1991). Evaluation of water activity measurements with a dew point electronic     humidity meter. Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft und-Technologie. 24(3):208-213.

Rocha-Garza, A.E. and J.F. Zayas. (1996). Quality of broiled beef patties supplemented with wheat germ protein     flour. Journal of Food Science. 61:418-421.

Roessler, P.F. and M.C. Ballenger. (1996). Contamination of an unpreserved semisoft baked cookie with a     xerophilic Aspergillus species. Journal of Food Protection. 59:1055-1060.

Sumner, S.S., J.A. Albrecht, and D.L. Peters. (1993). Occurrence of enterotoxigenic strains of Staphylococcus     aureus and enterotoxin production in bakery products. Journal of Food Protection. 56(8):722-724.

Tapia de Daza, M.S., C.E. Aguilar, V. Roa, and R.V. Diaz de Tablante. (1995). Combined stress effects on
    growth of Zygosaccharomyces rouxii from an intermediate moisture papaya product. Journal of Food     Science. 60:356-359.

Tornadijo, E., J.M. Fresno, J. Carballo, and R. Martin-Sarmiento. (1993). Study of Enterobacteriaceae throughout     the manufacturing and ripening of hard goats' cheese. Journal of Applied Bacteriology. 75:240-246.

Vandell, C.J. (1998). Maintaining vigilance over quality. Food Product Design. October:111-119.

Voysey, P. (1993). An evaluation of the AquaLab CX-2 system for measuring water activity. Digest, Microbiology     Section. 124

Williams, S.K., G.E. Rodrick, and R.L. West. (1995). Sodium lactate affects shelf life and consumer acceptance     of fresh (Ictalurus nebulosus, marmoratus) fillets under simulated retail conditions. Journal of Food Science.     60:636-639.