Loss on drying and water content: why a raw material's moisture changes your dose

When you weigh out a raw material, some of what's on the scale is water — and water isn't the ingredient you're paying for or dosing. If a lot comes in wetter than expected, a gram of it contains less of the actual material, so your product can be under-dosed even though you weighed the right amount. Loss on drying — the measure of a material's moisture — is therefore quietly important to potency and dosing. Here's why it matters.

Loss on drying, in plain terms

Loss on drying is how much weight a material loses when dried — essentially its water (and other volatile) content. A material with 5% loss on drying is 5% moisture by weight; dry it, and 5% of the weight disappears. It's a standard measure of how much of what you weighed is water rather than substance. The complement — the dry matter — is the actual material.

Why moisture changes the dose

If you formulate assuming a material is dry but it carries 8% water, then every gram you add is only 92% the actual ingredient — so the product delivers about 8% less than intended. For an active, that's an under-dose that can drop it below its claim or its qualifying threshold. The water is dead weight you dosed by mistake. A wetter-than-assumed lot quietly weakens the product.

Lot-to-lot variation

Moisture varies between lots of the same ingredient — a botanical dried differently, a hygroscopic material that picked up humidity. So even with a consistent recipe, the actual delivered amount of an active can swing lot to lot if you ignore moisture. Accounting for each lot's loss on drying — adjusting the amount to deliver a consistent dry-matter dose — is how potency stays consistent across lots. This is potency-on-a-dry-basis thinking.

It interacts with stability

Moisture isn't just a dosing issue — it ties to stability. The water a material brings into the formula contributes to the finished product's moisture and water activity, which affect microbial and chemical stability. So a high-moisture ingredient can both under-deliver its active and raise the product's degradation and microbial risk. Loss on drying connects dosing accuracy and shelf stability.

Moisture belongs in the ingredient spec

Because moisture affects both dose and stability, the loss on drying (or a moisture limit) belongs in each ingredient's specification — the acceptable moisture range you require, and the basis for adjusting the amount to deliver a consistent dry-matter dose. Holding it as part of the ingredient data lets the formula account for moisture rather than be surprised by a wet lot. Moisture becomes a managed property, not a hidden variable.

This is general information, not regulatory or legal advice. Confirm moisture and potency requirements for your specific ingredients and product with your suppliers and a qualified expert before relying on a general summary.

Where Lemoniq fits

Lemoniq lets loss on drying and moisture limits sit in each ingredient's specification, so the formula can account for a material's water content in the delivered dose and connect it to the product's moisture and stability — making moisture a managed property rather than a hidden cause of under-dosing.

The takeaway

A raw material's water content isn't active, so a wetter lot delivers less real material per gram — quietly under-dosing the product and varying potency lot to lot, while also affecting stability. Holding loss on drying in the ingredient spec, and dosing on a dry basis, is what keeps potency consistent and stability controlled.

Lemoniq holds moisture in your ingredient specs, so a wet lot doesn't quietly under-dose your product. See how it works