Water Activity Testing

Water activity measurement (Aw) testing for food and agricultural products.

Intertek provides water activity (Aw) testing for food, grains and other agricultural products. Water activity is an important measurement property for food testing. Water activity is used for compliance of government regulations, CFR, HACCP and other food safety programs. The food lab helps clients control and predict microbe activity.

Water activity measurement helps predict food stability and food shelf life. Upper and lower level water activity measurements help establish nutritional, texture, microbial, flavor, appearance, aroma and cooking qualities for food products. Controlling water activity helps to maintain the chemical stability of food products. The condition and status of water activity in food affects biodeterioration, spoilage, mold growth, bacteria growth, chemical reactions and other food safety and quality issues. The USA food laboratory offers water activity and water content testing. Water content analysis indicates total moisture present in a food. Water activity analysis measures how tightly moisture is chemically or structurally bound in food products.

The food laboratory uses state-of-the-art laboratory instrumentation for water activity analysis, with accuracy to ± 0.003 Aw in less than 5 minutes.

Water activity tests:

• AOCS, AOAC, USP, AACC
• The Food Chemical Codex, FTI
• USDA, FDA
• and Other Recogonized Industry and Government Standard
• The Lab also participates in various cross-check testing programs.

The water activity lab provides measurements for predicting: 

• Food texture
• Bacteria
• Yeast and mold growth from microbes such as:
• Pseudomonas
• Escherichia, Proteus
• Salmonella
• C. botulinum, Candida
• Micrococcus, Micotoxigenic penicillia
• Aspergillus chevalieri
• Saccharomyces rouxii
• Monascus bisporus
• and other microbes