Date: 1/28/16

Group Members: Milly, Pnotporn Jantarakolica

Prim, Prim Janjarussakul
Pizza, Supichaya Nobnom

There are three different types of water in food. Free or bulk water, capillary or trapped
water, and bound water. Free water is when the food or fruits have large amount of water and the
water molecules are surrounded by other water molecules. An example of a fruit that contains free
water is an orange. its juice can easily be removed by squeezing an orange. Capillary water is
contained in some food components that are held in small tubes. They are surrounded by a physical
barrier that prevents the water molecules from easily escaping. An example of foods that contains
this kind of water are vegetables because most plants need capillary property to be able to absorb
water from the roots to the stems. Bound water is when the water molecules are physically or
chemically attached together. Proteins, carbohydrates and minerals contain bound water which is
hard to remove. Therefore, fruits that contains these types of water such as free water, the water
could evaporate easily by undergoing the process of dehydration.
Dehydration occurs when our body has an imbalance of intake and output of water. The
reason why humans are often dehydrated is because we lose water everyday in different forms of
output: through urine, sweat, even breathing and we do not take in enough water. This condition
causes many symptoms, such as dry skin, fatigue or low urine output. It could also cause short
concentration span which is the first sign of dehydration. However, we can prevent from getting
dehydrated by drinking fluids every 15 minutes, even when we dont feel thirsty, to replace the water
that has been lost.
Fruits can also be dehydrated. This means that the water within the fruits have been
evaporated, decreasing its mass and leaving them dry. Not only the mass that would be changed, but
its shape, thickness, smell and color would also change too. By dehydrating them, we would be able to
find the moisture content of water, which is the amount of water per unit mass of the moisture. To
calculate we need to find out the initial mass of the fruit minus the final mass of the fruit (after
dehydration) then divide that by the initial mass and multiply the result by 100 as a percentage. The
reason why we dehydrate fruits is because it has more advantages than disadvantages. For example,
we dehydrate the fruits to preserve them, to prevent the bacteria growth, to create new flavors and
to reduce the transportation costs.
In this experiment, we have to dehydrate fruit samples that we chose which was a banana.
We dehydrated it, by using a dehydrator. We used the fruit sample to demonstrate the decrease in
the amount of water after the dehydration. The purpose of this experiment was to find the moisture
content of water in the fruit and to compare the fruit sample before and after dehydrating them.

Banana

Wax Paper

Chopping Board

Electronic Balance

Knife

Scissor

Fruit Dehydrator

Day 1:
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Day 2:
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Obtain the banana.

Peal the banana.
Cut the banana into equal pieces. There should be at least one piece for each group member.
Cut wax paper in a square shape, big enough the fit the banana on top.
Mass wax paper on the balance. ( in grams ).
Record it in your data table
Mass the banana on the balance ( by using tare and in grams ).
Record it in your data table
Mass the wax paper and banana on the balance ( in grams ).
Record the mass in your data table.
Draw a picture of the banana sample and observe the it.
Measure the bananas thickness with a ruler.
Record the thickness in your data table.
Place the bananas on the dehydrating rack. (Make sure the bananas are spread apart
evenly.)

Grab the dehydrated banana from the dehydrator.

Mass the dehydrated banana ( in grams ).
Record the mass in your data table.
Draw a picture of your dehydrated sample, and describe its characteristics compared to the
original sample.
Calculate the percentage of moisture in the original sample.
Find the average moisture content percentage for your group and compare it to the other
groups.

Name of Group Member

Mass of sample before

dehydration (g)

Mass of sample after

dehydration (g)

Moisture Content (%)

Milly

2.79

0.63

77.41

Prim

2.98

0.67

77.52

Pizza

3.40

0.72

78.82

Results:
Average Moisture Content for my group: 77.92%
Analyzing Results Questions:
1. Why did the weight of the sample decrease? Explain.
The weight of the sample decrease because during the drying process in the dehydrator, the
water was removed, the water will evaporate into the air, which will reduced the weight of the
sample as well.
2. Each group member should comment on the changes they observed from the wet to dry
sample.
Milly: Before we put the banana into the dehydrator, the banana has a mass of 2.79g, a
thickness of 0.5cm, and a diameter of 2.5cm. Also, the banana has a light yellow color, sweet odor,
and an oval shape. However, after its dehydrated the mass declined to 0.63g, the thickness shrinked
to 0.3cm, and the diameter condenses to 2cm. The color turned black and yellow, it has a burnt odor,
and the shape became a croaked oval.
Prim: Before dehydrating, the bananas color was pale yellow and had small brown spots. The
shape is a smooth oval because we cut the banana into pieces. The shape after dehydrating was
distorted, the bananas size decreased and it look frail. The bananas color turned more brown, some
had black spots as well.
Pizza: At first, the banana has the oval shape with light yellow colour, but after the
dehydration, the banana shrink smaller, the size, thickness and diameter decreased. The color also
changed from light yellow to dark brown.
3. Do you think your sample needed more time to dry? Why or why not?
The sample was cut into circular pieces and wasnt extremely thick so the sample came out
fairly dry. The sample did not need anymore time to dry because the texture signified that it had
dried completely, we could also tell when we tasted the sample because it was crispy.

4.

How did the average moisture content of the other fruit samples compare to your group?
The average moisture content of our sample was 77.92%, which our sample had the least
moisture content out of all the other samples in class. The fruit sample that had the highest average
moisture content was a cucumber, it had 95.81% of water. The fruit that had the second highest
average moisture content was a cantaloupe which had 85.27% moisture content, then a sharon fruit
with 83.94% and a mango with 82.87% average moisture content.
5.

Why did some samples dehydrate more efficiently than others? (For within your group and
also between different groups)
Since each fruits contains different amounts of water in it. Some has more water and some
has less, so thats one of the reasons why some dehydrate faster than others. Also each fruit are cut
in different ways and so each fruit thickness vary. Since each fruit pieces has different thickness
and size depending on how they are cut, the amount of water taken out by the dehydrator would be
different for each one.
According to the average amount of the moisture content of water on our data table,
cucumber has the most water (95.81%), next the cantaloupe (85.27%), next the sharon fruit (83.94%),
next the mango (82.37%), and banana (77.92%) with the least water. However, the size and thickness
of each pieces of each kind of fruits vary, so each moisture content of water of each piece of fruit is
different from one another. One of the reasons is because the bigger surface area, the faster the
water is taken away. Since the dehydrated fruits were taken out of the dehydrator at the same
time, some would be more dry than the others because that piece has more surface area.
6.
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Research advantages and disadvantages to dehydrated food products and explain. Include
APA citations.
Advantages:
There are many other ways that food are preserved and one of the reasons dehydrated food
are a good option is because no preservation or chemicals are added to it. You can be sure
that they are pesticides free if you dehydrate it yourself. Also, they can be kept in a long
period of time since they are preserved.
Dehydrated food products are also very efficient. They can be kept using less space and does
not require anyone or anything to look after it anymore. They dont need to be refrigerated
or freeze. Once they are done, its done.
They are also portable. People that are busy can carry it anywhere they want. They are
lightweight and does not require huge space.
They also reduce waste since a lot of food that are going to be spoil could be kept for a
longer period of time.
Disadvantages:
They are usually higher in calories since the water from the fruits are removed. This may
lead to weight gain.
It may contain higher sugar and sodium. Sugar and salt are usually used to preserve
dehydrated food and adding flavors to it.
Even though dehydration is one of the best ways to preserve food, there are still loss of
nutrients from food. About 5-15% of the nutrients are taken away from the process of
dehydration.

Benefits and Tips for Dehydrating Food. (2013, January 2). Retrieved January 18, 2016, from
DIYNatural: http://www.diynatural.com/dehydrating-food/
Drying and Dehydration . (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2016, from
http://home.pacific.net.hk/~ppleung/Chem/drying%20and%20dehydration.htm
Stein, N. (2015, November 29). The Disadvantages of Dehydrated Food. Retrieved January 18, 2016,
from LIVESTRONG.COM:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/318585-the-disadvantages-of-dehydrated-food/

When we dehydrate fruits, the fruits size and the mass would decrease and harden,
because the water has evaporated. Dehydrating makes the foods/fruits last longer, weigh less (for
cheaper transportations) and also prevents the growth of bacteria. Also, we can know what types of
foods or fruits we should eat to keep hydrated, in addition to drinking water.
By dehydrating, we can know the amount of water within the particular food or fruit by calculating
its moisture content.

Introduction: Prim, Milly, Pizza (All help edit and add information)
Materials: Pizza
Procedures: Milly
Data Table: Pizza
Discussion Section: 2 Questions each (Theres 6 questions)
Conclusion: Prim