Moisture Hysteresis is Due to Amorphous Sugar

Hysteresis, the moisture discrepancy between absorption and desorption, of sucrose‐waxy maize starch mixture was studied. Starch was raw, partially and completely gelatinized. Hysteresis of raw starch was insignificant. Gelatinized starch showed slight hysteresis, 0.02g w/g starch, in the range 0.57 to 0.84 a w . Sucrose showed no hysteresis. However, sucrose‐starch mixtures showed a large hysteresis, e.g., 0.15g w/g mix, which occurred only at a w below 0.86, the saturation a w for sucrose. Hysteresis showed a close linear correlation with the amount of amorphous sucrose (X‐ray diffraction) present. The amount of water sorbed by amorphous sucrose as calculated from the experimental data was in a good agreement with literature data.