The brittle-ductile transition of an amorphous food system

As a dry amorphous food system absorbs moisture or increases in temperature, the brittle food becomes soft and deformable. The temperature at which this transition occurs in the food system for a given moisture content is called the brittle-ductile transition temperature (T-b). Three different methods of determining this transition were used. The method that was chosen to best describe the food system was the intersection of brittle strength and yield strength measured in flexure as a function of both temperature and moisture content. Tb decreased linearly with increasing moisture content with a strong linear relationship (r(2) = 0.98).