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At equilibrium, the relationship between water content and equilibrium relative humidity of a material can be displayed graphically by a curve, the so-called moisture sorption isotherm. For each humidity value, a sorption isotherm indicates the corresponding water content value at a given, constant temperature. If the composition or quality of the material changes, then its sorption behaviour also changes. Because of the complexity of sorption processes, the isotherms cannot be determined explicitly by calculation, but must be recorded experimentally for each product.
The relationship between water content and water activity is complex. An increase in aw is usually accompanied by an increase in water content, but in a non-linear fashion. This relationship between water activity and moisture content at a given temperature is called the moisture sorption isotherm. These curves are determined experimentally and constitute the fingerprint of a food system.
BET theory provides a calculation to describe the physical adsorption of gas molecules on a solid surface. Because of the complexity of the process, these calculations are only moderately successful; however, Stephen Brunauer was able to classify sorption isotherms into five generalized shapes as shown in Figure 2.
He found that Type II and Type III isotherms require highly porous materials or desiccants, with first monolayer adsorption, followed by multilayer adsorption and finally leading to capillary condensation, explaining these materials high moisture capacity at high relative humidity.