Multifractal breakage pattern of tortilla chips as related to moisture content

Quality of brittle foods depends on their composition and handling. Moisture content and water activity (Aw) influence the resistance to fracture and the resulting breakage patterns are frequently associated to fractal geometries. The aim of this work was to characterise the morphology of the breakage pattern of tortilla chips subjected to breakage by means of fractal, multifractal and lacunarity evaluations within the range 1-7% wb moisture contents. The morphologies of breaking patterns line and transversal section were evaluated by digital image analysis (DIA). Results showed that low moisture contents were associated to long-tortuous breaking lines described by four different multifractal morphologies and the contrary was observed at higher moistures. Two main multifractal behaviours were observed for the breakage pattern and the elasticity modulus before and after the shifting moisture content (SMC) which had a value of 5% (Aw = 0.36) that was close to GAB monolayer value (4.3% moisture content) which has been associated to quality of foodstuffs.