Food & cooking
Dehydration mass balance
Estimate final mass from starting and target wet-basis water percentages.
A clear answer. Here’s how.
Conserves non-water solids: dry mass = initial mass × (1 − initial water fraction); final mass = dry mass/(1 − target water fraction). Requires lower target water percentage. Assumes only water is removed and all solids remain; no drying time, preservation safety, moisture activity or shelf life is inferred.
See a worked example
Worked example
A fixed demonstration, separate from the values you enter above.
- Starting mass (g)
- 1000
- Starting water by mass (%)
- 80
- Target water by mass (%)
- 20
Example result
- Conserved non-water mass (g)
- 200
- Estimated final mass (g)
- 250
- Water removed (g)
- 750
- Mass retained (%)
- 25
Conserves all non-water solids and assumes only water is removed. Water percentages are wet-basis mass fractions. Does not determine drying time, preservation safety or shelf life.