What is Water Activity and Why Should We Care About It?

Water activity is all about energy.  It is a thermodynamic principle that can provide valuable information on the stability of a food product; from microbial spoilage, lipid oxidation, and caking and clumping to shelf life and packaging determination. But water activity also has uses beyond food.

Please join us in discovering why and how to measure water activity, discuss specific food applications, and then go beyond the world of food to investigate novel applications like hydrate formation, building materials, and metal-organic frameworks.

Mary Galloway is the Head of Food Research at Addium, Inc. (formerly METER Group) and manages a research and testing lab. Her work primarily focuses on providing scientific and application support to customers and colleagues to explain the theory and application of water activity and moisture sorption isotherms.