Optimizing the Quality of Food Powder Products: The Challenges of Moisture-Mediated Phase Transformations

Abstract

Water is ubiquitous in the environment and is present to varying degrees even within dry powder products and most ingredients. Water migration between the environment and a solid, or between different components of a product, may lead to detrimental physical and chemical changes. In efforts to optimize the quality of dry products, as well as the efficiency of production practices, it is crucial to understand the cause–effect relationships of water interactions with different solids. Therefore, this review addresses the basis of moisture migration in dry products, and the modes of water vapor interactions with crystalline and amorphous solids (e.g., adsorption, capillary condensation, deliquescence, crystal hydrate formation, absorption into amorphous solids) and related moisture-induced phase and state changes, and provides examples of how these moisture-induced changes affect the quality of the dry products.