Author(s)

Luis Mayor, Alejandro Calvo, Ramon Moreira, Pedro Fito, Esperanza Garcia-Castello

Departamento de Enxe?aría Química, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Rúa Lope Gómez de Marzoa s/n, E-15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Instituto Universitario de Ingeniería de Alimentos para el Desarrollo, Universitat Politécnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain.

One third of the artichoke production is used in industrial processes, where up to 70% - 85% of the initial raw material is transformed into solid wastes. For an adequate management of these wastes, it is necessary to know their water sorption properties, because physical, chemical andbiological changes which occur during theirstorage depend on water-solid interactions. The objectives of this work are to experimentally determine equilibrium sorption (adsorption anddesorption) data of artichoke wastes at different temperatures (25°C - 55°C), as well as correlate and predict water sorption isotherms using bibliographic models. Equilibrium moisture content ranged 0 - 0.6 kg water/kg dry solid (water activity 0.05 - 0.9). Water sorption isotherms were classified between Types II and III. Hysteresis phenomenon was not observed, neither was the dependence of the equilibrium data with temperature. BET, GAB, Oswin and Peleg correlation models were satisfactorily fitted to experimental data. A predictive model based on composition and physical state of artichoke waste components was also successfully used to reproduce experimental data.

Food Waste; Modeling; Moisture; Water Activity

Mayor, L. , Calvo, A. , Moreira, R. , Fito, P. and Garcia-Castello, E. (2013) Water sorption isotherms of globe artichoke leaves. Agricultural Sciences, 4, 63-69. doi: 10.4236/as.2013.49B011.