In the food sector, many different products are processed and evaluated. The biological properties of these products, harvesting from the field, transportation and storage conditions, processing of the products through a number of technological processes, storage, transportation, marketing and consumption of processed foods are all factors that affect the quality of food products positively or negatively. The basis of everything is that these food products are healthy, quality and reliable. Therefore, quality control in food products is an important point and quality characteristics of foods, sensory properties such as color, texture and defect in foods should be measured and evaluated objectively and subjectively.

There are different methods used to determine the water content and thus the amount of moisture in foods. These include the following methods:

• Drying with oven
• Infrared drying method
• Distillation method (for substances containing essential oil)

Of these, the first two methods are the most widely used. The basic approach in both drying oven and infrared drying method is to determine the weight loss of the food products to be analyzed at a certain temperature. These methods are not suitable for food products containing essential oil. Because at certain temperatures, not only water but also the food product itself loses weight. For example, the oven drying system is therefore not used for spices.

In the determination of moisture by drying, the water in the food products evaporates under a certain temperature and evaporates. Only dry matter remains. The difference is the amount of evaporating water and the moisture content of the food is determined by a calculation.

Moisture determination (dry matter determination) analysis in foods is carried out within the scope of physical analysis in authorized laboratories. During these tests, standards, test methods and test criteria published by local and foreign organizations are followed.