Industries
Cured meats
Quality and safety in cured meats starts with moisture management
Cured meat quality depends on controlled drying and stable moisture levels. AQUALAB helps producers understand moisture management so products reach safe endpoints with consistent texture and shelf life.
Common moisture challenges in cured meats
Texture changes
Jerky, meat sticks, and dried snacks depend on a narrow moisture range to deliver the right bite. Small shifts in moisture during drying, cooling, or storage can lead to products that are too hard, too soft, or inconsistent from batch to batch. This makes quality harder to control and customer complaints more likely.
Microbial growth
Cured meats often sit close to moisture levels that affect microbial risk. Moisture content alone may look acceptable, while water activity remains high enough to shorten shelf life or trigger failed tests. This creates release delays, rework, and added pressure on QA decisions.
Precision that supports daily decisions.
Cured meats are shaped by how moisture leaves the product over time. Drying too fast can lock moisture inside. Drying too slowly can raise safety risk. Small differences in air flow, humidity, or product size can push batches out of spec before anyone sees it.
AQUALAB helps cured meat teams confirm safe and stable drying endpoints by measuring water activity directly instead of relying on time, weight loss, or moisture content alone. Fast, repeatable measurements support stronger QA decisions, more consistent texture, and fewer surprises before packaging or release.
“Removing the human element and having data collected in real time will allow us to gain, we believe, those points of yield and maximize consistency, which maximizes yield, which maximizes the quality of the product.”
Zach Robertson,
Chief Technical Officer, Tillamook Country Smokers
INDUSTRY EXPERTISE
Experience you can rely on
For more than 40 years, AQUALAB has helped quality teams around the world manage moisture with clarity and consistency. Today, more than 90 of the world’s top food and pharmaceutical companies rely on AQUALAB instruments and expertise to support daily quality decisions.
Our work spans global manufacturing environments, regulatory frameworks, and product types, giving QA teams a trusted scientific foundation they can defend.
Lab services support
When questions go beyond routine testing, AQUALAB Lab Services provide expert moisture analysis to help diagnose issues, validate results, and uncover root causes.
Explore lab servicesWater activity meters
AQUALAB instruments deliver fast, accurate, and repeatable water activity measurements designed for use in R&D, Production, and QA teams.
AQUALAB 4TE
Fast. Precise. Economical. Meet the renowned instrument that brought water activity to the business world.
- aw in <5 min
- Highly compliant + compatible
- Secure data storage
AQUALAB 3
Lightning-fast total moisture analysis to tighten process control and boost quality.
- MC + aw in one
- Results in 60 seconds
- For the lab or the line
Lab services
Precision lab testing services to confirm quality, consistency, and compliance.
- Accurate results
- Fast turnaround
- Industry standards
Knowledge base
Explore resources, application notes, and expert guidance to help your quality team make moisture management simpler, clearer, and more reliable.
Tillamook Country Smoker’s perfect jerky and automated processes
Tillamook was born in a backyard smokehouse in the 1960s. Even with extreme growth, TCS has remained committed to producing the most authentic beef jerky on the market.
Water activity and shelf-stable meat products
Water activity. If you’re making shelf-stable meat, you’re required to measure it. But you can also profit from it, and this guide will show you how.
How to optimize food drying, baking or dehydrating
Most food companies know they could optimize their drying processes to some degree. But almost all of them underestimate what they’d gain by doing so – and what they lose by ignoring problems.
Market Snapshot: Jerky. Rating the top brands
We tested the top 12 jerky brands to get insider insight into how their water activity levels, pH, moisture content, overpack and underpack ratings compare.