Water activity of Spanish intermediate-moisture meat products.

On the basis of considering foods with water activity from 0·600 to 0·910 to be intermediate-moisture foods (IMF), we determined the water activity, pH, and some chemical parameters for 70 samples from 17 different selected types of Spanish intermediate-moisture meat products. Even though the salt content is the main water-activity depressor, the sodium chloride molality in the overall amount of water of the product cannot be used to calculate the a(w) value of these types of meat products of intermediate moisture.