used to explain why food dehydration tends to be more difficult and
more energy consuming than simple water evaporation. The
water–macromolecule interaction energetics shown in Fig. 5 can
also be related to certain pore structure characteristics. In the higher
density systems, the pore sizes are generally smaller and they
can be readily seen to result in greater water–macromolecule interactions.
Between the amylose and dextran systems, the water–macromolecule interactions in the dextran porous structures, especially
when the chain density is higher, tend to decrease as Z increases,
while they are much less dependent on the Z position in
the amylose porous structures. The former suggests that the dextran
porous structures have larger pores toward the upper regions
of their structures, while the latter suggests that the amylose porous
structures have more uniform pore sizes in the Z direction.