Sorption equilibrium moisture and isosteric heat of adsorption of Chinese dried wheat noodles

• The best fitted equations for the EMC/ERH data of ten varieties of Chinese dried wheat noodles were MGAB and polynomial equations.
• The heat of vaporization of them approaches the latent heat of pure water at a moisture content of ～20% d.b., which is ～2500 kJ/kg.
• When the equilibrium relative humidity is 60%, their safe storage moisture content at 25 and 35 °C respectively is 11.74 and 11.57% d.b.

Equilibrium moisture content (EMC) data for dried wheat noodles of ten Chinese varieties were collected by a gravimetric method at 11–96% equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) and 15 °C, 20 °C, 25 °C, 30 °C, and 35 °C. Five models were fitted to the sorption data, namely the modified Chung Pfost equation (MCPE), modified Henderson equation (MHE), modified Guggenheim Anderson deBoer equation (MGAB), modified Oswin equation (MOE), and a polynomial equation. The best fitting equations were MGAB and the polynomial equation. At a constant ERH, the EMC decreased with increasing temperature, despite the minor effect of temperature on the sorption isotherms of dried noodles. Initially, the isosteric heats of adsorption for dried wheat noodles decrease rapidly with increasing sample moisture content (m.c.); however, after the moisture content is more than 15% of the dry basis (d.b.), they decrease slowly with increasing m.c. The heat of vaporization of Chinese dried wheat noodles approaches the latent heat of pure water at a moisture content of ∼20% d.b., which is ∼2500 kJ/kg. The isosteric heats of sorption of Chinese dried noodles predicted by MCPE and MHE models at lower temperatures were higher than those at higher temperatures. When the equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) is 60%, the safe-storage moisture content of Chinese dried wheat noodles are 11.74% and 11.57% d.b. at 25 °C and 35 °C, respectively. Among ten varieties of dried wheat noodles, the egg-flavoured noodle had the highest onset temperature (To), peak temperature (Tp), and conclusion temperature (Tc) of gelatinization, but the golden-silk egg noodles had the highest peak enthalpy of gelatinization. The gelatinization To, Tp, and Tc of golden-silk egg noodles were the lowest. Most of the ten varieties of dried wheat noodles demonstrated similar thermal properties and hygroscopic behaviour.