Food Chemistry

Lecture 2: Water
Introduction
 Water is the most abundant molecule on Earth's surface,
composing of about 70% of the Earth's surface as liquid
and solid state in addition to being found in the atmosphere
as a vapor
 Water is the chemical substance with chemical formula H2O:
one molecule of water has two hydrogen atoms covalently
bonded to a single oxygen atom
 At room temperature, it is a nearly colorless, tasteless, and
odorless liquid, with a hint of blue
 Many substances dissolve in water and it is commonly
referred to as the universal solvent
 Water is the only pure substance found naturally in all
three common states of matter – solid, liquid and gas
 Water in three states:
liquid water, solid water is ice and
clouds are condensated water vapor
Why Water is Somewhat
Blue?
 Common misconception: large bodies,
such as the oceans, the water's color is
blue due to the reflections from the sky on
its surface
 The blue color is caused by:
 Selective absorption and scattering of the light
spectrum
 Impurities dissolved or suspended in water
may give water different colored appearances
– silica and lime
 Large bodies of water such as oceans
manifest water's inherent slightly blue color,
not a reflection of the blue sky, as was once believed
 High concentrations of dissolved lime
make the water of Havasu Falls appear turquoise
Introduction
 Water is an essential constituent of many foods:
 May occur as intracellular or extracellular in vegetable and
animal products
 As the dispersed phase in some emulsified products such as
butter and margarine
 As a minor constituent in other foods
 Because of the importance of water as a food
constituent, an understanding of this properties and
behavior is necessary
 Water presence influences the chemical and
microbiological deterioration of foods
 Removal (drying) or freezing of water is a method of
food preservation
Water Structure
 Water composed of one oxygen atom and two
hydrogen atoms
 Each hydrogen atom is covalently bonded to the
oxygen via a shared pair of electrons
 Oxygen also has two unshared pairs of electrons
 Thus there are 4 pairs of electrons surrounding
the oxygen atom, two pairs involved in covalent
bonds with hydrogen, and two unshared pairs on
the opposite side of the oxygen atom
 Oxygen is an "electronegative" or electron
"loving" atom compared with hydrogen
Water Structure
 Water is a "polar" molecule, meaning that there
is an uneven distribution of electron density
 Water has a partial negative charge (–) near the
oxygen atom due the unshared pairs of electrons,
and partial positive charges (+) near the
hydrogen atoms
 An electrostatic attraction between the partial
positive charge near the hydrogen atoms and the
partial negative charge near the oxygen results in
the formation of a hydrogen bond (as shown in
the illustration)
Model of hydrogen bonds between molecules of water
Water Structure
 The ability of ions and other molecules to
dissolve in water is due to polarity
 For example (in the illustration) sodium
chloride is shown in its crystalline form and
dissolved in water
Water Structure
 Many other unique properties of water are due to
the hydrogen bonds:
 For example, ice floats because hydrogen bonds hold
water molecules further apart in a solid than in a liquid,
where there is one less hydrogen bond per molecule
 High heat of vaporization, strong surface tension, high
specific heat, and nearly universal solvent properties of
water are also due to hydrogen bonding
 The hydrophobic effect, or the exclusion of compounds
containing carbon and hydrogen (nonpolar compounds)
is another unique property of water caused by the
hydrogen bonds
Chemical and Physical
Properties
 Water is a tasteless, odorless liquid at ambient temperature
and pressure
 The color of water and ice are, essentially, a very light blue
hue, although water appears colorless in small quantities.
Ice also appears colorless, and water vapor is essentially
invisible as a gas
 Water is transparent, and thus aquatic plants can live
within the water because sunlight can reach them
 Water is primarily a liquid under standard conditions
 Water has a polar molecule
 Since oxygen has a higher electronegativity than hydrogen, a
charge difference is called a dipole. The charge differences
cause water molecules to be attracted to each other by
hydrogen bonds.
Chemical and Physical
Properties
 The boiling point of water is directly related to the
barometric pressure
 For example, on the top of Mt. Everest water boils at about
68 °C (154 °F), compared to 100 °C (212 °F) at sea level.
Conversely, water deep in the ocean near geothermal vents
can reach temperatures of hundreds of degrees and remain
liquid.
 Water sticks to itself
 Water has a high surface tension caused by the strong
cohesion between water molecules because it is polar. The
apparent elasticity caused by surface tension drives the
capillary waves
 Water also has high adhesion properties because of its
polar nature
 Capillary action refers to the process of water moving up a
narrow tube against the force of gravity
Capillary action of water compared to mercury
Dew drops adhering to a spider web
Impact from a water drop causes an upward "rebound" jet
surrounded by circular capillary waves
This daisy is under the water level, has risen gently and smoothly.
Surface tension prevents the water from submerging the flower
Chemical and Physical
Properties
 Water is a very strong solvent, referred to as the
universal solvent, dissolving many types of
substances
 Substances that will mix well and dissolve in water, e.g.
salts, sugars, acids, alkalis, and some gases: especially
oxygen, carbon dioxide (carbonation), are known as
"hydrophilic" (water-loving) substances, while those that
do not mix well with water (e.g. fats and oils), are known
as "hydrophobic" (water-fearing) substances
 Pure water has a low electrical conductivity, but
this increases significantly upon addition of a small
amount of ionic material water such as hydrogen
chloride
Chemical and Physical
Properties
 Water has the second highest specific heat capacity of any
known chemical compound, after ammonia, as well as a
high heat of vaporization (40.65 kJ mol−1)
 Result of the extensive hydrogen bonding between its molecules.
These two unusual properties allow water to moderate Earth's
climate by buffering large fluctuations in temperature
 The maximum density of water is at 3.98 °C (39.16 °F)
 This causes an unusual phenomenon: ice floats upon water, and so
water organisms can live inside a frozen pond because the water
on the bottom has a temperature of around 4 °C (39 °F).
Chemical and Physical
Properties
 Water is miscible with many liquids, for
example ethanol in all proportions, forming a
single homogeneous liquid
 On the other hand water and most oils are
immiscible usually forming layers according to
increasing density from the top. As a gas,
water vapor is completely miscible with air
 Some substances (sodium, calcium,
potassium) emit a flammable gas when wet, or
react violently with water
Liquid and Solid Water
 Ice, like all solids, has a well-defined structure
 Each water molecule is surrounded by four neighboring
H2Os
 Two of these are hydrogen-bonded to the oxygen atom
on the central H2O molecule, and each of the two
hydrogen atoms is similarly bonded to another
neighboring H2O
 The four bonds from each O atom point toward
the four corners of a tetrahedron centered on the
O atom
 This basic assembly repeats itself in three
dimensions to build the ice crystal
Liquid and Solid Water
 When ice melts to form liquid water, the
uniform three-dimensional tetrahedral
organization of the solid breaks down as
thermal motions disrupt, distort, and
occasionally break hydrogen bonds
 The methods used to determine the
positions of molecules in a solid do not
work with liquids, so there is no clear way
of determining the detailed structure of
water
2D illustration of solid water 2D illustration of liquid water
 ic
e

The stable arrangement of hydrogen-bonded water molecules

in ice gives rise to the beautiful hexagonal symmetry
that reveals itself in every snowflake
Why Ice Floats?
 Theoretically, solid form of most substance is
more dense than the liquid phase
 But, by contrast, a block of common ice will float
in a tub of water because solid water is less
dense than liquid water
 This is an extremely important characteristic
property of water. At room temperature, liquid
water becomes denser with lowering
temperature, just like other substances
 BUT at 4 °C water reaches its maximum density,
and as water cools further toward its freezing
point, the liquid water, under standard
conditions, expands to become less dense
Why Ice Floats?
 The physical reason for this is related to the crystal
structure of ordinary ice. Water, lead, uranium, neon and
silicon are some of the few materials which expand when
they freeze; most other materials contract
 Generally, water expands when it freezes because of its
molecular structure, the unusual elasticity of the hydrogen
bond
 That is, when water cools, it tries to stack in a crystalline
lattice configuration that stretches the rotational and
vibrational components of the bond, so that the effect is
that each molecule of water is pushed further from each of
its neighboring molecules
 This effectively reduces the density of water when ice is
formed under standard conditions
Water Activity
 Water activity refers to the availability of water in
a food or beverage and represents the amount of
water that is available to microorganisms
 The term water activity (aw) refers to this
unbound water. Pure water has an aw of 1.00
 The water activity of a food is not the same thing
as its moisture content
 Although moist foods are likely to have greater
water activity than are dry foods, this is not
always so; in fact a variety of foods may have
exactly the same moisture content and yet have
quite different water activities
 Water activity values are obtained by either a
capacitance or a dew point hygrometer
 Typical Water Activity of Some
Foodstuff
Type of Product Water Activity (AW)
Fresh Meat and Fish 0.99
Bread 0.95
Aged Cheddar 0.85
Jams and Jellies 0.8
Plums puddings 0.8
Dried fruits 0.6
Biscuits 0.3
Milk powder 0.2
Instant coffee 0.2
Importance of Water
Activity
 Water activity (aw) is one of the most critical
factors in determining quality and safety of the
goods you consume every day
 Water activity affects the shelf life, safety,
texture, flavor, and smell of foods,
pharmaceuticals and cosmetics
 While temperature, pH and several other factors
can influence if and how fast organisms will grow
in a product, water activity may be the most
important factor in controlling spoilage
Importance of Water
Activity
 Most bacteria do not grow at water activities
below 0.91, and most molds cease to grow at
water activities below 0.80
 By measuring water activity, it is possible to
predict which microorganisms will and will not be
potential sources of spoilage
 Water activity (not water content) determines the
lower limit of available water for microbial growth
 In addition to influencing microbial spoilage,
water activity can play a significant role in
determining the activity of enzymes and vitamins
in foods and can have a major impact their color,
taste, and aroma
AW Microorganisms grow at this aw and above Food Examples
0.95 Pseudomonas, Escherichia, Proteus, Shigella, fresh and canned fruits,
Klebsiella, Bacillus, Clostridium perfringens, vegetables, meat, fish, milk,
cooked sausages, foods with
7% NaCl
0.91 Salmonella, Vibrio parabaemolyticus, C. botulinum, Cheese, fruit juice
Lactobacillus, some molds concentrates with 55%
sucrose or 12% NaCl
0.87 Many yeasts, Candida, Torulopsis, Hansenula sponge cakes, dry cheese,
micrococcus margarine, foods with 65%
sucrose or 15% NaCl
0.80 Most molds, most Saccharomyces spp., fruit juice concentrates,
Debaryomyces, Staphylococcus aureus condensed milk, syrup, flour,
high-sugar cakes
0.75 Most halophilic bacteria, Mycotoxigenic aspergilli Jam, marmalade, glace fruits,
marzipan, marshmallows

0.65 Xerophilic molds, Saccharomyces bisporus Rolled oats with 10%

moisture, jelly, nuts
0.60 Osmophilic yeasts, few molds caramel, toffee, honey

0.30 No microbial proliferation Cookies, crackers, bread

crusts with 3-5% moisture