Engineering Evaluation of Methods for Measuring Total Solids in Food Products

The study aimed to find out the optimum method to measure the total solids (TS) content of the orange juice (OJ), whole milk (WM), and wheat flour (WF) samples. The TS of orange juice, milk, and flour samples were measured using microwave moisture analyzer and oven-forced air draft. The obtained results from this study showed that there was a significant difference (P<0.05) in the TS values of orange juice and milk samples between the two methods. On the other hand, there are no significant differences (P<0.05) in wheat flour samples between the two methods. Results also showed the high ability of the oven in removing more moisture from OJ and WM samples as compared to microwave moisture analyzer. However, dried samples like wheat flour which do not contain a high rate of moisture did not record any changes in the moisture values between the two methods.