[kpowers.nj]

Can a regular kitchen convection oven be used for analysis of loss of moisture in processed canned tomatoes?  The methods I have researched include a vacuum oven and forced draft oven, but since convection ovens have air flow, is it possible to use this instead?  What are the disadvantages?
I am working on developing a quality control lab at a food distributing company, and starting from scratch there are a lot of expensive instruments I need.  If I can use the oven here in the kitchen for moisture analysis, I can use the money I would have spent on a laboratory oven for other supplies.  Any advice or input would be appreciated.  Thanks!

[Corribus]

That's going to depend a lot on what you're trying to do.  A conventional oven (as opposed to a laboratory oven) isn't going to have nearly the precision or accuracy in its temperature reading, and there are more likely to be hot and cold spots.  (Why you often have to rotate baking foods halfway through the cook time.)

[curiouscat]

My gut feeling says you'll be OK.

OTOH, if you have to produce a QC protocol to be vetted by a third party, it might be iffy to get them to accept your hack.