Capabilities of automated Karl Fischer titration combined with gas extraction for water determination in selected dairy products

The water content of different types of butter, processed cheeses and hard cheese was determined by classical oven drying, manual Karl Fischer titration and a combination of water release by heating and transferring the released water in a dried air stream into a Karl Fischer titration cell. This technique is also referred to as gas extraction of the water or combined method. ld be shown that oven drying and manual Karl Fischer titration yield results which are close together. By choosing an adequate temperature for heating the sample in the combined method the results of the two reference methods can be obtained. The advantage of this automated combined method is the gain of time when a high number of samples is to be determined for water content.