Moisture Sorption Characteristics of Powdered Soybean Curd

In order to improve the storage stability of powdered soybean curd, moisture sorption characteristics of the curd stored at specific relative humidity and temperature were investigated. The results obtained are summarized as follows; 1. When the fresh soybean curd (2cm thickness) was dried in a hot air drier at , it took 18 hrs to reduce its moisture content from 85% to 8.8%, and drying rate was very high during the first 5 hrs. 2. Equilibrum moisture content (E.M.C.) of powdered soybean curd by freeze drying was higher than that of sample by got air drying, but the particle size did not influence E. M. C. 3. The monolayer value of freeze dried powder of high E. M. C was higher than that of the hot air dried(8.30 vs 7.35). 4. The free energy for moisture absorption of freeze dried powder at 11% RH were 1285.1 cal/mole, 1323.5 cal/mole at and , respectively, and the free energy of freeze dried product was lower that of hot air dried product. 5. The moisture sorption rate constant was not affected by particle size, and it showed that the moisture sorption rate decreased as temperature was increased. The rate constant of powder produced by freeze drying were 0.00804 at and 0.00696 at .