Water Content in Foodstuff

Water is a vital part of our alimentation for our body! When following a proper diet, a part of the water needed is taken in along with the food. However, you can never do without actually drinking water!

The water content of the single food may vary, depending on the origin, the age and the kind!

As you can clearly see, fresh fruits and vegetables contain the most water, whereas many products from the supermarket contain relatively little water.

Why Is It This Way?

The more water food contains, the faster it goes bad. This can be explained by microorganisms, which usually require a lot of water to multiply. If you want to preserve food, you either have to heat it in order to kill all germs (pasteurising) or you have to remove as much water as possible. The dried products keep longer.

For example, if you dry fruits, they become very suitable for storage (dried apples keep for many months if stored correctly; they contain approximately 10-20% water). Further examples are:

These foods are suitable for longer storage and do not change during storage.

Many primitive peoples found out a long time ago that the removal of water makes foodstuff suitable for storage. In that way it was possible to keep stocks even long before the invention of the freezer.