Estimating the Thermal Properties of Foods from Their Moisture Contents

% moisture

63.5

	abovefreezing	belowfreezing	units
thermal conductivity (K)	0.444	1.619	-1 J m -1 s -1 °C
specific heat capacity ( c p )	2.967	1.640	-1 kJ kg -1 °C
latent heat (λ)	212.725		-1 kJ kg

This Demonstration calculates five thermal properties of a food as a function of its moisture content (as a percentage on a wet basis). It only provides realistic estimates for foods that consist primarily of water and carbohydrates, protein, etc. It should not be used to compute the properties of foods that consist primarily of salt and/or fat, or, in the case of thermal conductivity, liquid and solid foams that contain large amounts of air.