![]() ![]() The “Water structure” hypothesis advocates that the addition of certain species into solution either has: i. Despite the best attempts to remedy such over-simplification ( Altunakar & Labuza, 2008), the interpretation of water activity in terms of “free water” still persists ( Carareto et al., 2010, Frosch et al., 2010, Guine et al., 2015). ![]() In any case, this view suggests that water activity of an aqueous solution is fundamentally reflected by only the nature of the water interactions occurring within it. The popular view, water activity as water “availability”, may have been originated from this seminal paper, giving rise to the interpretation that water activity is a measure of water freedom (i.e., boundness). The “Free water” hypothesis ( Scott, 1953) advocates the use of water activity “as a measure of the availability of water” in an aqueous medium (i.e., solution). The measure of “hydration water” which comes from the stoichiometric clustering/bindings models of water and solutes. There are the following three different views co-existing in the literature: However, what “water activity” really is on a microscopic scale is still a matter of controversy, which we focus on exclusively in this paper. Despite serious criticisms on the utility of water activity as a fundamental descriptor of water-related phenomena in food and related systems, it continues to be widely used to this day as a tool for product development and quality control across multiple areas of the food industry ( Slade & Levine, 1991). Water activity also plays an important role on the sensorial properties of foodstuffs such as aroma, taste and texture as well as on their chemical and biological reactivity (e.g., lipid oxidation and non-/enzymatic activity) ( Labuza & Rahman, 2007). It serves as a useful indicator of the microbiological stability of foodstuffs and food-related systems, much better than mere water content ( Scott, 1957). Following its introduction over 60 years ago ( Scott, 1953), the application of “water activity” has become omnipresent within food science and related disciplines. ![]()
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