Tobacco

The process of getting tobacco leaves from the farm into a packaged product requires curing, which prompts major changes in both chemical composition and moisture.  Tightly controlling moisture allows quality control managers to deliver a consistent product.  Traditionally, this has been done with a loss-on-drying moisture balance, but water activity offers an alternative.

Measuring Moisture

For a particular product, water activity and moisture are linked: if one goes up, so does the other.  So if you want a better way to measure moisture, water activity can give it to you.  Why? Water activity meters are much more sensitive to changes in moisture than most moisture content meters.  This is because on dry tobacco  products, a tiny change in moisture creates a large change in water activity.  When compared with AOAC approved moisture methods like oven drying, water activity gives you about 10x more precision.

Look at an instrument that can measure water activity and moisture together >>

Fungal Growth

"Wet" agricultural products are susceptible to fungal growth until their water activities are brought into a lower range.  Usually, this means getting your product under the water activity level of 0.7aw as soon as you can.  Measuring water activity will always tell you if your product can grow fungus in clear terms, regardless of which product you're measuring.  The water activity reading is what determines what can grow.

See a table of water activity values that inhibit fungal growth >>

Regulatory Compliance

Tobacco products are regulated by the FDA, and it's important to have a HACCP plan to show the FDA your product is safe.  Water activity is the only moisture related reading that is accepted by the FDA as a critical control point.

Learn more about water activity and government regulations >>

AquaLab Measures Water Activity

See a video about how the AquaLab 4TE measures water activity >>