Water Sorption Kinetics of Spaghetti Prepared under Different Drying Conditions

The drying conditions of spaghetti affect its properties, such as appearance, hardness and water sorption. The dried spaghetti is eaten after cooking. In this context, the water sorption kinetics of spaghetti dried under different conditions was measured at various cooking temperatures. The spaghetti was characterized by the maximum temperature during the drying: 50 degrees C, 70 degrees C and 85 degrees C. The water sorption processes of the spaghetti at any cooking temperature could be expressed by an empirical kinetic equation of the hyperbolic type, and the equilibrium moisture content and the initial rate of water sorption were estimated, taking the loss of spaghetti mass during cooking into consideration. The loss of spaghetti mass was lower for spaghetti dried at higher temperature. Maximum temperature affected the change in the enthalpy of water sorption in the temperature region to a greater degree than the gelatinization temperature of starch in the spaghetti, while it had no effect on the activation energy for the initial rate of water sorption.