Moisture Sorption Isotherm Characteristics Of Sago Flour
Suciati Adil (a*), Junaedi Muhidong (a), Diyah Yumeina RD (a)

a) Faculty of Agriculture, Hasanuddin University
Jalan Perintis Kemerdekaan KM. 10, Makassar 90245, Indonesia
*suciatiadil20[at]gmail.com

Abstract

The equilibrium moisture content of sago flour is a quite important information, especially for predicting shelf-life of the product which can be affected by various factor, such as temperature, relative humidity, and packaging condition. This research was conducted to study the characteristic of moisture sorption isotherm and to determine the best mathematical equation model in studying the isotherm sorption characteristic of sago flour. Sago flour was stored in an incubator at humidity range of 10 to 80% with temperature variations of 30 C and 40 C. Humidity setting was done using various types of salt solutions. This study showed that all the sorption curves were found to be Type II. The higher the RH in the incubator, the higher the equilibrium moisture content of the material. Meanwhile, the water sorption capacity decreased with increasing temperature. Different models were fitted to the data, including Oswin, Chung Pfost, and Caurie model. The Chung Pfost model was found as the best model to represent the experimental data in water activity range 0.1 to 0.8.

Keywords: Sago flour- Moisture sorption isotherm- Chung Pfost model

Topic: Agriculture engineering