Shelf life prediction of cacao powder using isothermic sorption approach

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine the isothermic absorption curve model in cocoa powder products and to estimate the shelf life of cocoa powder in packaging standing pouch aluminum foil and kraft with isothermic sorption approach. This research began with the manufacture of cocoa powder, determining the moisture content of cocoa powder at various storage relative humidity (RH) and estimating the shelf life of cocoa powder on the packaging standing pouch aluminum foil and kraft with isothermic sorption approach. Cocoa powder was obtained by grinding using a cocoa powder machine and sifting it using a Tyler sieve with a mesh size of 60. The equilibrium moisture content (KAK) of cocoa powder was obtained by storing cocoa powder at various relative humidity (RH) using saturated salt solutions of MgCl₂, K₂CO₃, NaNO₂, NaCl and KCl. The isothermic sorption model was obtained by plotting the KAK with water activity (a_w) value (RH/100). The results showed that the Hasley model was the most appropriate model to describe the isothermic sorption phenomenon of cocoa powder with the smallest Mean Relative Determination (MRD) value of 2.007, which was the most appropriate model to describe the isothermic sorption phenomenon of cocoa powder. The shelf life of cocoa powder stored in aluminum foil standing pouch packaging at a temperature of 30 °C and relative humidity (RH) 75% and 80% were 665 days and 514 days, respectively. Whereas with kraft standing pouch packaging for 293 days and 227 days.