Sufficient agitation was needed to ensure phase equilibration;
however, excessive agitation could lead to incorporation of air,
breaking of the emulsion or drying out of the caramel. Preliminary
agitation time experiments were carried out to determine the level
of agitation that would be required for each formulation before the
final data was collected. The required agitation was determined by
evaluating the water activity (aw) of a caramel over time. Water
activity changes throughout the crystallization process as the
sucrose crystals are removed from solution and it eventually
reaches a constant value at phase equilibrium.