AQUALAB Research Report | May 2026
his month, AQUALAB appeared in research spanning cured meat, refrigerated poultry, fortified fermented dairy, and upcycled coffee by-products — four very different products linked by one underlying question: how water activity governs safety, stability, and shelf life. In each case, researchers used AQUALAB to tie moisture control to preservation, storage quality, or the performance of a recovered ingredient.
In the literature
Meat and poultry preservation
Researchers characterizing smoked bacon used an AQUALAB 4TE to measure water activity as part of evaluating the cured product's quality and stability.
A separate study of chicken breast myopathies — the wooden-breast-type defects increasingly common in modern broiler meat — tracked quality traits across refrigerated storage, with an AQUALAB 4TE used to measure water activity among them.
Fortified and functional foods
In the development of an iodine-containing fermented milk beverage (ayran) enriched with dried persimmon and banana powders, researchers used an AQUALAB 4TE to confirm the fruit powders sat below 0.60 water activity. Combined with the drink's low pH, that low aw formed a "safety-by-design" hurdle against pathogen growth without the need for added preservatives.
Upcycled and sustainable foods
In work turning spent espresso grounds into a natural antioxidant for protein bars, an AQUALAB 4TE tracked the bars' water activity across 60 days of storage, part of assessing how the recovered phenolic compounds, and the finished bars, held up over shelf life.
AQUALAB Research Report is a monthly roundup of notable citations, mentions, and technical references involving AQUALAB instruments and water activity science.
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