The determination of moisture sorption isotherms and the isosteric heat of sorption for irradiated and non-irradiated durum wheat

Abstract

Durum Wheat is deemed as one of the most important agricultural elements in the food system. Gamma irradiation treatment proves to be an efficient technique to decontaminate cereals so that we can ensure their hygienic quality during conservation. This paper seeks to study the hygroscopic behavior of irradiated and non-irradiated durum wheat at three temperatures 30 °C, 40 °C and 50 °C using the static gravimetric method. Furthermore, modeling the relationship between water activity and the equilibrium moisture content has been conducted through several models. GAB and Halsey were selected as convenient models that represent moisture sorption isotherms data for durum wheat. The net isosteric heat of sorption, the specific surface area of sorption was calculated via several equations including the Marquardt–Levenberg algorithm. As a result, the study of the samples reveals that the ionization at a low dose affects the moisture sorption of durum wheat