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Moisture sorption characteristics of soy flour at room temperature

J.A.Victor Famurewa, M.O.Oluwamukomi, M.A.Sogbade

Themoisture content for optimumstability of full fat soy flour was studied over a relative humidity range of 10 - 90% using the static gravimetric method at roomtemperature (27 ± 20C).About 3g of the flour was put in a petri dish of known weight (uncovered), the dish was then placed inside a desiccator containing saturated salt solution. The flour was allowed to equilibrate over a period of 7 weeks and the EMCwas calculated at the end of the period. It was found that the equilibrium moisture content for the flour ranged between 5.80 to 24.50%and that it increased with increasing relative humidity. Themonolayermoisture content, determined using BET equation at Relative humidity less than 50% was found to be 6.99% (db). This suggests that a good storage stability of soy flour would be obtained when kept at conditions of relative humidity of 50% and below at room temperature and the moisture content less than 6.99%. Since this is less than the average environmental moisture content, it shows that the flour has a higher capacity for absorbing more moisture, suggesting its potential suitability for baking purposes.