Estimación de coeficientes efectivos de difusión de agua en galletitas comerciales

Abstract

In this work, a simple experimental procedure adapted from the literature was proposed to estimate the water effective diffusion coefficients of commercial biscuits using moisture absorption tests under controlled conditions. The biscuits were selected as possible substrates in a food coating process. The biscuits were placed over plastic supports inside sealed glass jars containing pure water inside (100% relative humidity) at 25°C. They were removed from the flasks every 1 h during 6 h. The moisture of samples was determined on a dry basis at each time by triplicate. A simplified mathematical model derived from Fick’s second diffusion law was used to estimate the effective diffusion coefficients. The experimental moisture values obtained were satisfactory. In addition, the estimated values of effective diffusion coefficients were in the range of those published in the literature for similar bakery products.