Determination of moisture in cheese and cheese products

Variables related to oven-drying samples of cheese and cheese products to determine moisture content were examined to provide more efficient and reproducible methods. Over 6500 samples of cheese were analyzed in an effort to modify the current AOAC procedure. The gravity atmospheric oven was unsuitable for use in accurate moisture analysis because of wide temperature differentials within the oven cavity. Use of this for oven moisture determination resulted in higher variance, which corresponded to the high temperature variation within the oven. Cheese sample preparation using an Oster blender yielded consistently lower variance in final moisture content than did preparation of cheese samples with a hand grater, rotary grater, and plug and plunger. Sample size of 3 +/- 0.25 g maximized surface area-to-volume ratios and yielded a lower error in final moisture content because of better control of ambient weight loss rates. Use of combination of disposable 5.5 cm diameter aluminum sample pans with 5.5 cm diameter glass fiber filter pads for covers produced a smaller standard deviation for moisture analysis than did the AOAC pan and insert cover and filter paper covers. All pans must be pre-dried for at least 3 h at 100 degrees C, and the glass fiber covers should be pre-dried for 1 h under the same conditions. All dried pans and covers must be stored in a desiccator with active desiccant. Equipment upgrades from the existing AOAC standard methods provide safer more efficient methods of analysis.