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Journal of Food Engineering 85 (2008) 180–190

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Sorption isotherms of potato slices dried and texturized by

controlled sudden decompression
T. Iguedjtal, N. Louka *, K. Allaf
Laboratoire Maı̂trise des Technologies Agro-Industrielles, Pôle Sciences and Technologies, Université de La Rochelle, 17042 La Rochelle Cedex 1, France

Received 6 April 2006; received in revised form 12 April 2007; accepted 29 June 2007
Available online 20 July 2007

Abstract

Controlled sudden decompression to a vacuum (DIC) was used to confer a porous structure to partially dehydrated foods by expand-
ing them and facilitating the drying process at lower water content. Moisture sorption isotherms of Bintje potato slices hot-air dried and
texturized by DIC were determined and compared using a gravimetric method. The samples were stored in a temperature-controlled
chamber at 20, 30 or 40 °C; and relative humidity was controlled between 5% and 90%. Both adsorption and desorption isotherms
had a sigmoidal shape (type II). The sorption capacity decreased with increasing temperature at a given water activity. Hysteresis
was more pronounced for texturized potatoes than for hot-air dried samples. Non-linear regression analysis was used to fit five moisture
sorption isotherm models. The Peleg, Kats and Kutarov, GAB and BET (aw less than 0.5) equations all accurately characterized the
sorption behaviour. Texturizing by DIC increased the surface area of potato slices by 45% relative to heat air drying. The net isosteric
heat of sorption was found to increase with decreasing moisture content and was higher for texturized potatoes than hot-air dried
samples.
Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Sorption isotherms; Surface area; Isosteric heat; Texturizing; Potatoes; Drying

1. Introduction Sorption isotherms of foods, which describe the thermo-

The preservation and stabilization of the main charac-
teristics of foods (taste, crispness,. . .,etc.) during storage
often requires control of their moisture content. Several
preservation processes have been developed in order to
extent the shelf-life of foodstuffs by lowering the avail-
ability of water to micro-organisms and inhibiting some
chemical reactions. While moisture content is an impor-
tant criterion to judge food quality (Arslan & Toğrul,
2005), water activity (aw), is an essential additional
parameter to describe water availability and mobility in
foods. Establishing the relationship between moisture
content (Xe) and aw which is known as the sorption iso-
therm, is important to understand the stability of food-
stuffs (Labuza & Hymann, 1998).
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 5 46 45 86 14; fax: +33 5 46 45 86 16.
E-mail address: nlouka@univ-lr.fr (N. Louka).
dynamic equilibrium state of water, are extremely impor-
tant, for the design and optimization of drying
equipment, for prediction of quality, stability, shelf-life
and calculating moisture changes which may occur during
storage. (Al-Muhtaseb, McMinn, & Magee, 2004; Durak-
ova & Menkov, 2004; Katz & Labuza, 1981; Kaymak-Ert-
ekin & Gedik, 2004).
The moisture isotherms also allow the isosteric heat of
sorption to be defined. The isosteric heat of sorption pro-
vides useful insight into the food microstructure as well
as a theoretical interpretation of physical phenomenon
occurring at the water–food interface (Arslan & Toğrul,
2005; Aviara & Ajibola, 2002; McMinn & Magee, 2003;
Mulet, Garcia-Pascual, Sanjuan, & Garcia-Reverter,
2002; Rizvi, 1995; Tolaba, Peltzer, Enriquez, & Pollio,
2004).
A number of models have been proposed in the litera-
ture to describe moisture isotherms. Chirife and Iglesias

0260-8774/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2007.06.028
 T. Iguedjtal et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 85 (2008) 180–190
Nomenclature
A, B, C, K, k1, k2, n1, n2 sorption isotherm constants
aw water activity
AH2 O the area of water molecular (1.06  1019 m2)
E mean relative deviation
DHvap the heat of vaporisation (kJ/mol)
M H2 O the molecular weight of H2O (g/mol)
n the non integer parameters in which the whole
parts corresponds to the real number of polylayers
Nbre the number of experimental data
NAvogadro the Avogadro’s number (6.023  1023 mole-
cules/mol)
P saturated steam pressure (bar)
Qst the isosteric heat of sorption (kJ/mol)
qst the net isosteric heat of sorption (kJ/mol)
(1978) published 23 models for foodstuffs. Boquet, Chirife,
and Iglesias (1978) evaluated and applied 8 models on 39
different products. Van den Berg and Bruin (1981) collected
and classified 77 models. These models can be classified in
several categories: kinetic models based on the monolayer
theory (e.g., BET model), kinetic models based on the mul-
tilayer theory (e.g., GAB model) and empirical and semi-
empirical models (e.g., Peleg, Oswin and Ferro-Fontan
models).
Although, the sorption properties of potatoes have been
the object of several scientific reviews, data for the Bintje
variety are not abundant. Igbeka, Blaisdell, Herum, and
Hamdy (1975) studied desorption of white potatoes. Mazza
(1980) investigated desorption results of Norchip Canadian
potato variety. Wang and Brennan (1991) reported sorp-
tion data for Desiree potato variety. McLaughlin and
Magee (1998) determined sorption isotherms of Pentland
Dell potatoes. Chen (2002) published sorption results for
sweet potatoes.
Physical characteristics and food composition can lead
to a variation in the thermodynamic parameters, however,
it should be noted that foodstuff treatments can affect
their physical characteristics (Lasekan & Lasekan, 2000;
Kaymak-Ertekin & Gedik, 2004). Vullioud, Márquez,
and De Michelis (2004) reported that foodstuffs with sim-
ilar chemical composition but different physical character-
istics had different sorption isotherms. Similarly, if the
same variety and the same species of foods are treated dif-
ferently, they will have different moisture content for the
same water activity.
During drying processes, the control of changes relating
to the structure and texture of foodstuffs is important
(Aguilera, 2005). Indeed, drying of foodstuffs is often asso-
ciated with a deformation of the product (shrinking). Dur-
ing the classical drying process, two phases are often
observed: the first phase involves removal of water which
deforms the product; the second phase has limited water
removal but an increase in temperature which leads to ther-
181
R universal gas constant (kJ/mol K)
RMS root mean square error
t treatment time under pressure P (s)
T sorption temperature (°C)
Xe the equilibrium moisture content (g moisture/
g dry basis)
Xi the moisture content of sample (g moisture/
g dry basis)
Xpi the predicted value
Xm the monolayer moisture content (g moisture/
g dry basis)
W initial water content before treatment (g/g dry
basis)
r surface area (m2/g)
mal degradation of the product. A texturizing stage for
partially hot-air dried products may provide a less compact
and more porous structure giving an increase in water
transfer and subsequently an accelerated drying process
during the second phase with considerable improvements
in food quality.
Texturizing processes of partially dehydrated products
appeared in the middle of the 20th century (Harrington
& Griffiths (1950)) and were increasingly used with the
introduction of a puffing process (Adam & Suchy,
1969; Heiland & Eskew, 1965; Turkot, Eskew, Sullivan,
Cording, & Heiland, 1965). The method consists of plac-
ing partially dehydrated products in a vessel under high
pressure and high temperature followed by an abrupt
decompression to atmospheric pressure (Craig & Sulli-
van, 1980; De La Burde, Aument, & Utsch, 1981;
Delost-Lewis, Lorenz, & Tribelhorn, 1992; Sullivan &
Craig, 1984).
The controlled sudden decompression to a vacuum pro-
cess, known as DICÒ (Détente instantannée contrôlée), was
developed in 1988 (Allaf, Louka, Bouvier, Parent, & For-
get, 1992, 1993). This process is based on a thermo-
mechanical effect induced by an abrupt transition from
high steam pressure to a vacuum (pressure change greater
than 5 bar s1), which leads to the expansion of products.
Several parameters can influence the quality of texturizing
by DIC, the steam vapour pressure P (bar), the time of
treatment t(s) and the initial moisture content before treat-
ment W (g/g dry basis) and the level of vacuum (Louka &
Allaf, 2002).
Thus, a new drying operation was defined, coupling an
initial hot-air drying process until a water content (W)
ranging from 10% to 30% was reached, with treatment by
DIC. The drying rate and the elimination of residual water
during the second drying phase have been improved giving
higher good quality of texturized fruits and vegetables. The
improvement in drying kinetics is strictly correlated with
the increase of the diffusivity of the water thanks to the
182 T. Iguedjtal et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 85 (2008) 180–190

Therefore, the objectives of this work were to: (1) estab-

lish the adsorption and desorption isotherms at different
storage temperatures for hot-air dried and DIC texturized
Bintje potatoes, (2) determine the best model for fitting the
experimental data, (3) use the models to calculate the
monolayer moisture content and the surface area of pota-
toes, and (4) to estimate the isosteric heat of sorption for
Bintje potatoes.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Samples preparation

Bintje variety potatoes were used. After washing and

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the DIC reactor. (I) processing vessel; (II)
vacuum tank; (III) decompression valve; (a) thermocouples; (b) and (c)
pressure sensor; (d) airlock system; (e) steam–water separator system; (V1)
and (V2) steam admission valve; (V3) outlet valve; (V4) air injection valve;
(P) to the vacuum pump; (S) air injection system.
expanded nature of the new structure. However, the impact
in terms of water activity is not yet known so the establish-
ment of sorption isotherm is very important.
peeling, the potatoes were cut into slices (16  16  2 mm)
and blanched for 7 min in boiling water at 95 °C.
2.2. Dehydration method
The potato slices which had an initial water content of
(76% db) were dried in a hot-air drier at 60 °C. One-third
of the samples was dried to 3% db (hot-air dried), and
the two-third were dried to 15% db followed by DIC treat-
ment (DIC texturized).

2.3. DIC treatment

a c d

Processing
b Processing time The DIC equipment is fully described by Louka, Juhel,
pressure and Allaf (2004a) and is shown in Fig. 1.
The potato slices at 15% db, moisture content were
introduced in a processing vessel in which a vacuum was
established at an absolute pressure of 30 mbar (Fig. 2a).
The vessel was then pressured using saturating steam to
P (atmospheric) 3 bar or 6 bar (Fig. 2b). These pressures are maintained
e
constant for 20 s (Fig. 2c). This was followed by an abrupt
P (vacuum)
decompression to the vacuum (Fig. 2d). Then while keep-
Time
ing the samples under vacuum (valve III open), atmo-
spheric air was injected permitting an intense cooling of
Fig. 2. Pressure–time profile of DIC processing cycle. the product (Fig. 2e). Finally, the samples were again

Table 1
Isotherm model equations fitted to the experimental sorption data
Model Mathematical expression
Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) (Brunauer et al., 1938) X e ¼ X 0 Caw =½ð1  aw Þð1  aw þ Caw Þ ð1Þ

Guggenheim–Anderson–De Boer (Van den Berg & Bruin, 1981) X e ¼ X 0 CKaw =½ð1  Kaw Þð1  Kaw þ CKaw Þ ð2Þ

Kats and Kutarov (Kats & Kutarov, 1998) X e ¼ X 0 Caw ð1  anw Þ=½ð1  aw Þð1  aw þ Caw Þ ð3Þ

Oswin (Oswin, 1946) X e ¼ Aðaw =ð1  aw ÞÞB ð4Þ

Peleg (Peleg, 1993) X e ¼ k 1 anw1 þ k 2 anw2 ð5Þ

 T. Iguedjtal et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 85 (2008) 180–190 183

0.30 0.30
20 ºC 20 ºC
30 ºC 30 ºC
40 ºC 40 ºC
0.25 Kats & Kutarov 0.25 Peleg

Xe (g/g dry basis)

Xe (g/g dry basis)

0.20 0.20

0.15 0.15

0.10 0.10

0.05 0.05

0.00 0.00
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
water activity water activity

Fig. 3. (a) Adsorption and (b) desorption isotherms of hot-air dried potato slices at 20 °C, 30 °C and 40 °C.

0.30 0.30
20 ºC 20 ºC
30 ºC 30 ºC
40 ºC 40 ºC
0.25 Kats & Kutarov 0.25 Peleg
X e (g/g dry basis)

X e (g/g dry basis)

0.20 0.20

0.15 0.15

0.10 0.10

0.05 0.05

0.00 0.00
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
water activity water activity

Fig. 4. (a) Adsorption and (b) desorption isotherms of texturized potato slices at 20 °C, 30 °C and 40 °C (3 bar).

0.30 20 ºC 20 ºC
0.30
30 ºC 30 ºC
40 ºC 40 ºC
0.25 Kats & Kutarov Peleg
0.25
Xe (g/g dry basis)

X e (g/g dry basis)

0.20 0.20

0.15 0.15

0.10 0.10

0.05 0.05

0.00 0.00
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
water activity water activity

Fig. 5. (a) Adsorption and (b) desorption isotherms of texturized potato slices at 20 °C, 30 °C and 40 °C (6 bar).
184 T. Iguedjtal et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 85 (2008) 180–190

placed in the hot-air drier until they reach a moisture con-

tent of approximately 3% dry basis. 0.25

Ads Hot-air dried

2.4. Sorption isotherms method Des Hot-air dried
0.20

The sorption isotherms were obtained by the gravimet-

X e (g/g dry basis)

ric method using an Autosorp 3.0 (Biosystème, Couter-
0.15
non, France) at 20, 30 and 40 °C. The apparatus
comprises a closed chamber where temperature and rela-
tive humidity are regulated and controlled electronically 0.10
(±0.2 °C and ±0.02%, respectively). A rotating disk sup-
ports and weighs the products automatically using an
electronic balance (±0.0001 g). An internal ventilator pro- 0.05
vides a homogenous gas phase. For the adsorption pro-
cess, 6 g of dried sample was placed in the chamber
maintained at constant temperature. The relative humid- 0.00
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
ity of the chamber was controlled by an atomising humid-
water activity
ification system at values ranging from 5% to 80%. For
the desorption process, samples were held at 90% relative
humidity until equilibrium was reached. Then, silica gel
was used to attain relative humidities below 90%. The 0.25

samples were allowed to equilibrate until there was no Ads (3 bar)

Des (3 bar)
discernible weight change (±0.0005 g). Samples reached
0.20
equilibrium between 4 and 6 days, depending on the tem- X e (g/g dry basis)

perature and relative humidity. It took a longer time to

equilibrate samples at higher relative humidity and low 0.15
temperature than the ones at lower relative humidity
and higher temperature. Each experiment was carried
out in duplicate and average values were reported. The 0.10
equilibrium moisture content of each sample was deter-
mined with the help of a drying oven whose temperature
was fixed at 105 °C for 8–10 h (AOAC, 1980). The maxi- 0.05

mum relative error was 0.008 g H2O/g db.

0.00
2.5. Fitting sorption isotherms 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8

water activity
The BET, GAB, Kats and Kutarov, Peleg and Oswin
models (Eqs. (1)–(5), respectively, in Table 1) were fitted
to the experimental data. The BET isotherm equation is
widely used due to its theoretical basis (Vazquez, Chenlo, 0.25 Ads (6bar)
Moreira, & Carballo, 1999). It often does not accurately Des (6bar)

fit isotherms with multi-layer absorption due to their non-

sigmoidal shape. The GAB model gave a good fit for more 0.20
X e (g/g dry basis)

than 50% of analysed fruits, meat and vegetables (Kaymak-

Ertekin & Gedik, 2004; Lomauro, Bakshi, & Labuza, 1985), 0.15
and the use of the GAB equation has been recommended by
the European COST 90 project. The Peleg (1993) model is a
4 parameter model that can be used for both sigmoidal and 0.10

non-sigmoidal shaped isotherms. The Kats and Kutarov

(1998) model is a 3 parameter extension of the GAB model
0.05
that allows the description of adsorption isotherms involv-
ing multi-layer as well as cluster formation. Chirife and Igle-
sias (1978) found that Oswin model was versatile for a wide 0.00
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
range of isotherms shapes and materials. A non-linear least
water activity
squares regression program was used to evaluate the model
parameters (SigmaPlot, 8.02). The criteria used to evaluate Fig. 6. Sorption isotherms at 20°C for (a) hot-air dried potato slices, (b)
the goodness-of-fit of each equation were the mean relative texturized (3 bar) potato slices and (c) texturized (6 bar) potato slices.
 T. Iguedjtal et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 85 (2008) 180–190 185

percentage deviation modulus (E) and the root mean square number (6  1023 molecules mol1), and AH2 O is the area
percent error (RMS). of water molecule (1.06  1019 m2).
100 X N
jX i  X pi j
E¼ ð6Þ 2.7. Isosteric heat of sorption
N bre i¼1 Xi
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u N  2 The determination of the sorption isotherms at two or
u 1 X X i  X pi
RMS ¼ t  100 ð7Þ more temperatures allows heat of sorption to be evaluated.
N bre i¼1 Xi The net isotherm heat of sorption is the energy associated
with the sorption process greater than the heat of vaporiza-
where, Xi is the experimental moisture content, Xpi is the tion (DHvap):
predicted moisture content, and Nbre is number of experi-
mental data. qst ¼ Qst  DH vap ð9Þ
1
where qst is the net isosteric heat of sorption (kJ mol ), Qst
2.6. Surface area is the isosteric heat of sorption (kJ mol1) and DHvap is the
heat of vaporisation (kJ mol1).
The BET, GAB and Kats and Kutarov models all pro- The net isosteric heat of sorption can be calculated from
vide estimates of the mono-layer moisture content. The the slope of the sorption isotherms plotted as ln aw versus
surface area r (m2/g) was determined from the monolayer (1/T) for specific values of moisture content using the Clau-
moisture content, using (Mazza & Le Maguer, 1978): sius–Clapeyron equation (Rizvi, 1995):
AH2 O N Avogadro X 0  
r¼ ¼ 3530X 0 ð8Þ dðln aw Þ
M H2 O qst ¼ R ð10Þ
dð1=T Þ
where r is the solid surface area (m2 g1), X0 is the mono- where aw is the water activity, R is the universal gas
layer moisture content (g/g dry basis), M H2 O is the molecu- constant (kJ/mol K) and T is the absolute temperature
lar weight of water (18 g mol1), NAvogadro is Avogadro’s (K).

Table 2
Estimated sorption model constants for hot-air dried potato
Model Constants Adsorption Desorption
20 °C 30 °C 40 °C 20 °C 30 °C 40 °C
a
BET X0 (g/g db) 0.056 0.055 0.053 0.083 0.078 0.097
r (m2/g) 197.68 194.15 187.09 292.99 275.34 342.41
C 10.490 9.226 8.150 7.550 7.345 37.052
E (%) 3.93 4.56 4.77 5.16 5.16 2.50
RMS (%) 4.57 5.96 5.77 6.96 5.82 2.87
GAB X0 0.064 0.070 0.073 0.106 0.101 0.076
r (m2/g) 225.92 247.10 257.69 374.18 356.74 268.28
C 7.330 6.380 5.480 7.010 6.736 7.830
K 0.946 0.876 0.807 0.760 0.750 0.795
E (%) 3.81 2.70 3.06 4.35 4.65 1.51
RMS (%) 4.34 3.71 3.54 5.65 5.71 1.85
Kats and Kutarov X0 (g/g db) 0.059 0.058 0.056 0.083 0.078 0.060
r (m2/g) 208.27 204.74 197.68 292.99 275.34 211.8
C 8.415 7.980 6.910 7.840 7.540 9.399
N 9.590 6.600 5.190 4.310 4.150 4.760
E (%) 2.72 2.62 2.80 4.89 4.80 2.77
RMS (%) 3.30 3.23 2.98 6.55 5.44 3.47
Peleg K1 0.128 0.135 0.130 0.241 0.225 0.159
K2 0.367 0.241 0.162 0.399 0.327 0.163
N1 0.592 0.650 0.684 0.775 0.783 0.681
N2 4.260 3.890 3.460 9.180 9.030 4.650
E (%) 4.03 3.46 3.69 2.92 3.29 2.01
RMS (%) 5.23 5.08 4.51 4.04 4.95 2.56
Oswin A 0.108 0.103 0.094 0.135 0.125 0.103
B 0.609 0.548 0.514 0.465 0.461 0.468
E (%) 6.14 4.85 7.50 10.56 9.69 6.55
RMS (%) 7.02 7.31 13.18 16.65 14.5 11.65
a
aw range for BET equation was 0.1–0.5, only for first five data points were used.
186 T. Iguedjtal et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 85 (2008) 180–190

3. Results and discussion 3.2. Moisture sorption hysteresis

3.1. Adsorption and desorption isotherms
The adsorption and desorption isotherms of potato
slices hot-air dried and texturized at 20, 30 and 40 °C
are shown in Figs. 3–5a–b. As expected, the obtained
equilibrium moisture content values show an increase
with increasing water activity. The sigmoı¨dal shape of
the isotherms is common for several hygroscopic products
and corresponds to type II of the Brunauer’s classification
(Brunauer, Deming, Deming, & Troller, 1940). This is in
agreement with other measured isotherms for potato
(Mazza, 1982; McMinn & Magee, 2003; Van den Berg
& Bruin, 1981).
The equilibrium moisture content decreased with the
increase of temperature for a constant water activity, thus
indicating that the potato slices become less hygroscopic.
Similar results were found by Litchfield and Okos (1992);
McLaughlin and Magee (1998) and Palipane and Driscoll
(1992). These trends may be due to the reduction in the
total number of the active sites for water binding as a result
of physical and/or chemical changes in the product caused
by the storage temperature (Mazza, 1980).
Fig. 6a–c shows the sorption isotherms obtained for hot-
air dried and texturized potato slices at 20 °C. These curves
clearly display that hysteresis occurs for both hot-air dried
and texturized potato slices. The hysteresis difference was
less for the 6 bar DIC than for the 3 bar DIC and hot air
dried (both lower difference in equilibrium moisture con-
tent and smaller range of aw for which there was a differ-
ence). The reduced hysteresis suggests that the texturized
product have surfaces free from capillary forces.
3.3. Mathematical modelling
The estimated parameters of the models for hot-air
dried and texturized potatoes and E and RMS values for
models are listed in Tables 2–4. The fitting of the BET
was restricted to data with aw < 0.5 because it could not
fit the sigmoı¨dal shape across the full range. Lower E
and RMS values represent improved goodness of fit. The
Kats and Kutarov equation predicted the isotherms with
the smallest E and RMS (average E was 2.97% and average
RMS was 3.78% for all temperatures and both adsorption
and desorption). The Peleg model gave also closest fit to

Table 3
Estimated sorption model constants for texturized potato (3 bar)
Model Constants Adsorption Desorption
20 °C 30 °C 40 °C 20 °C 30 °C 40 °C
a
BET X0 (g/g db) 0.065 0.063 0.062 0.083 0.082 0.070
r (m2/g) 229.45 222.40 218.86 292.99 289.46 247.10
C 13.490 10.800 10.920 10.660 8.631 11.791
E (%) 3.29 3.54 2.92 4.73 4.47 5.28
RMS (%) 3.47 4.06 3.26 6.46 6.64 6.98
GAB X0(g/g db) 0.080 0.083 0.087 0.105 0.108 0.083
r (m2/g) 282.40 293.00 307.11 370.65 381.24 292.99
C 8.980 6.720 6.910 5.230 7.410 10.230
K 0.892 0.843 0.778 0.783 0.741 0.822
E (%) 3.61 4.32 3.97 3.98 4.34 3.78
RMS (%) 4.68 5.30 5.38 5.41 6.97 5.63
Kats et Kutarov X0 (g/g db) 0.069 0.067 0.067 0.084 0.083 0.068
r (m2/g) 283.57 236.51 236.51 296.52 292.99 240.04
C 11.180 10.850 8.620 10.710 8.450 12.340
N 6.940 5.360 4.670 4.480 4.070 5.107
E (%) 2.28 2.15 2.00 3.71 4.07 4.06
RMS (%) 2.76 2.69 2.36 5.59 5.89 6.21
Peleg K1 0.143 0.138 0.136 0.229 0.225 0.183
K2 0.307 0.237 0.170 0.258 0.179 0.238
N1 0.527 0.570 0.573 0.673 0.717 0.630
N2 3.580 3.170 2.770 6.051 5.498 5.300
E (%) 3.18 1.85 1.67 3.33 3.55 3.250
RMS (%) 3.94 3.25 2.53 4.25 5.58 4.64
Oswin A 0.128 0.118 0.113 0.144 0.135 0.123
B 0.525 0.516 0.470 0.445 0.445 0.459
E (%) 3.64 4.56 5.96 6.40 7.41 5.19
RMS (%) 4.28 6.28 9.13 9.87 11.43 7.47
a
aw range for BET equation was 0.1–0.5, only for first five data points were used.
 T. Iguedjtal et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 85 (2008) 180–190 187

Table 4
Estimated sorption model constants for texturized potato (6 bar)
Model Constants Adsorption Desorption
20 °C 30 °C 40 °C 20 °C 30 °C 40 °C
BETa X0 (g/g db) 0.077 0.076 0.072 0.091 0.084 0.072
r (m2/g) 271.81 268.28 254.16 321.23 296.52 254.16
C 20.260 13.090 14.400 15.222 14.181 18.91
E (%) 3.62 3.90 3.13 5.26 3.25 3.20
RMS (%) 3.70 4.28 3.35 6.45 3.76 3.55
GAB X0 (g/g db) 0.093 0.108 0.098 0.115 0.109 0.094
r (m2/g) 328.290 381.240 345.940 405.91 384.77 331.82
C 14.270 9.024 9.960 12.900 11.150 13.490
K 0.851 0.754 0.742 0.774 0.759 0.756
E (%) 2.23 2.42 2.61 4.14 3.482 3.27
RMS (%) 3.01 3.06 4.04 5.97 5.30 4.48
Kats et Kutarov X0 0.079 0.085 0.077 0.092 0.087 0.076
r (m2/g) 278.87 300.05 271.81 324.76 307.11 268.28
C 17.980 10.650 11.680 14.980 13.070 16.050
N 5.610 4.200 4.050 4.268 4.160 4.110
E (%) 1.85 1.27 1.62 4.318 2.82 2.79
RMS (%) 2.27 1.52 1.84 5.57 3.48 3.02
Peleg K1 0.172 0.192 0.167 0.240 0.207 0.159
K2 0.278 0.172 0.147 0.283 0.178 0.157
N1 0.470 0.579 0.546 0.595 0.568 0.476
N2 3.590 3.120 2.910 6.170 3.720 2.890
E (%) 1.85 3.38 2.74 3.28 2.28 2.50
RMS (%) 2.15 3.58 2.87 4.70 2.83 2.75
Oswin A 0.149 0.144 0.130 0.160 0.150 0.134
B 0.452 0.432 0.416 0.409 0.414 0.396
E (%) 2.44 5.68 5.17 4.38 4.35 4.01
RMS (%) 3.03 9.67 7.95 6.24 5.64 4.95
a
aw range for BET equation was 0.1–0.5, only for first five data points were used.

the experimental data (average E and RMS of 2.90% and for starchy food by Chirife and Iglesias (1978) and Yanni-
3.85%), However, the GAB and BET models (restricted otis (1994). Wang and Brennan (1991) reported a mono-
aw range) were only slightly inferior with average values layer moisture content value ranging from 3% to 6% for
for E and RMS of 3.45% and 4.66% for GAB.model and potatoes in the temperature range 40–70 °C. The surface
4.03% and 4.88% for BET model. The Oswin equation pre-
dictions were significantly poorer for both adsorption and
desorption, giving average values for E and RMS of 5.80%
and 8.68%. The GAB, Kats and Kutarov and BET 0.25
Hot-air dried
3 bar
(restricted aw range) were close in accuracy. Similar results 6 bar
were found for hot-air dried potatoes (Wang & Brennan,
1991). Overall, any of the Kats and Kutarov, GAB or Peleg 0.20
X e (g/g dry basis)

models were good predictors of the sorption isotherms.

0.15
3.4. Monolayer moisture contents and surface area

The value of the monolayer (X0) is of particular impor- 0.10

tance as it indicates the amount of water that is strongly
adsorbed to specific sites and is considered as the value at
0.05
which a food is the most stable. The estimated monolayer
moisture content values (X0) of sorption are shown in
Tables 2–4 for the, BET, GAB, or Kats and Kutarov mod- 0.00
els. The monolayer moisture content were lower for hot-air 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
water activity
dried samples than for texturized samples, The monolayer
moisture content values for hot-air dried potatoes are com- Fig. 7. Effect of the DIC treatment on adsorption isotherms of potato
parable to the values of 7.36 (g H2O/g dry basis) reported slices at 20 °C.
188 T. Iguedjtal et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 85 (2008) 180–190
area values are shown also in Table 2–4. The average sur-
face area values for adsorption and desorption for all tem-
peratures using the GAB model, were (243.5, 332.7 m2/g)
for hot-air dried products, (294.2, 348.3 m2/g) for the tex-
turized products at 3 bar and (351.8, 374.2 m2/g) for textur-
ized products at 6 bar. These results indicate an increase in
the available surface for the hydrophilic water binding dur-
ing the treatment of potato slices by DIC and this is prob-
Fig. 8. Micrographs comparing (a) hot-air dried, (b) texturized (3 bar)
and (c) texturized (6 bar) potato slices (50 times magnification).
ably due to the existence of a microporous structure in
these products generated by the treatment.
3.5. Effect of DIC treatment
The comparisons of sorption isotherms at 20 °C for the
three treatments are represented in Fig. 7.
The treatment of potatoes significantly affects the shape
of the adsorption isotherm. For high relative humidities,
the difference decreased. Texturized potatoes at 3 and
6 bar adsorb more vapour water compared to hot-air dried
potatoes over the entire water activity range. The high val-
ues of adsorption for treated potatoes were probably due
to the porous structure of this product (Fig. 8a–c). Mazza
(1982) reported similar results when comparing adsorption
isotherm of freeze-dried and vacuum dried potatoes. Fur-
thermore, the water activity decreases with the intensity
of the DIC treatment at constant moisture content
(Fig. 7). For X0 equal to 0.1 g/g dry basis, water activity
is equal to 0.49, 0.39 and 0.28, for hot-air dried and textur-
ized potatoes at 3 and 6 bar, respectively. Thus, DIC trea-
ted products are likely to be more stable than hot-air dried
products at the same moisture content.
3.6. Net isosteric heat of sorption
The variation in heat of adsorption with moisture con-
tent, for hot air-dried and texturized products at 3 and
6 bar is shown in Fig. 9.
The isosteric heat of adsorption had a strong depen-
dence on moisture content, with the energy required for
sorption increasing for low moisture content. This reflects
the difference in water binding forces. Initially at low mois-
ture content water occupies highly active polar sites on the
surface (with high interaction energy), followed by a pro-
gressive filling of the less available sites with lower bonding
activation (Tsami, Maroulis, Marinos-Karinos, & Sarava-
cos, 1990). Furthermore, the isosteric heat of adsorption
16
14
6 bar
3 bar
12 Hot-air dried
q st (kJ/mol)
10
2
0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
X e (g/g dry basis)
Fig. 9. Change of sorption isosteric heat with moisture content for hot-air
dried and DIC potatoes at 3 and 6 bar.
 T. Iguedjtal et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 85 (2008) 180–190
decreases with an increase in material moisture content and
tends to that of pure water indicating that the water is
becoming more freely available as moisture content
increases.
Comparison of hot-dried and treated potatoes data
shows that, at a specific moisture content, the isosteric heat
of adsorption of texturized potatoes is higher than the cor-
responding hot-dried value. This increase is probably due
to the appearance of new highly energetic polar bonding
sites after texturizing the potatoes.
4. Conclusion
The moisture sorption isotherms of the Bintje potato
variety were characteristic of the type II isotherm for both
hot-air dried and texturized samples. The equilibrium
moisture content decreased with the increase of tempera-
ture at constant water activity. The hysteresis was lower
for texturized potatoes than for hot air-dried potatoes.
The Peleg, GAB, and Kats and Kutarov models gave ade-
quate fits to the sorption data in the temperatures range of
20–40 °C and relative humidities range of 5–90%. The
monolayer moisture contents for texturized potatoes at 3
and 6 bar were higher than hot-air dried samples. The
water activity decreased with the severity of the DIC treat-
ment at constant moisture content implying greater storage
stability The net isosteric heat of sorption of texturized
potatoes were greater than that of hot-air dried potatoes
at low moisture contents, probably due to the appearance
of new highly energetic polar sites after texturizing.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank the CDA (Communauté
d’Agglomération de La Rochelle) for their financial
support.
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