## 3 Results and Discussion  
Changes in the appearance of conventional (G) and organic (GEcol) garlic bulbs during the fermentation process (temperature 70 \({}^{\circ}\)C, 80% humidity, 45 days) are shown in Figure 1, while Table 1 presents a physicochemical properties of raw and black garlic from conventional and organic cultivation. As can be seen, the tested garlic samples differed significantly (\(p<0.05\)) in terms of humidity, water activity and pH. The average water content in fresh garlic was \(64.83\pm 3.45\%\), which corresponds \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Sample** & **GR** & **GREcol** & **BG** & **BGEcol** \\ \hline Moisture (\%) & 67.87 \(\pm\) 0.99 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 61.79 \(\pm\) 1.06 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 47.59 \(\pm\) 0.92 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 45.54 \(\pm\) 1.96 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline Water activity & 0.9864 \(\pm\) 0.004 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 0.9642 \(\pm\) 0.001 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 0.9173 \(\pm\) 0.001 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 0.8919 \(\pm\) 0.001 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline pH & 6.31 \(\pm\) 0.03 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 6.52 \(\pm\) 0.04 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 4.15 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 4.01 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Physicochemical properties of raw and black garlic from conventional and organic cultivation. Figure 1: Changes in the appearance of conventional (G) and organic (GEcol) garlic bulbs during the fermentation process (temperature 70 \({}^{\circ}\)C, 80% humidity, 45 days). GR—raw conventional garlic; GREcol—raw organic garlic; BG—conventional black garlic; BGEcol—organic black garlic. to the results of other authors: 66.1-64.21% [36; 37; 42]. Raw garlic from organic cultivation was characterized by significantly lower (\(p<0.05\)) humidity (by about 6%), and thus a higher dry matter content than garlic from a conventional cultivation system. The fermentation processes used in the case of both conventional (BG) and organic (BGEcol) garlic caused a significant (\(p<0.05\)) decrease in the water content in the product (by 20.28% and 16.25%, respectively), with no statistically significant differences in GR and GREcol humidity, which amounted on average to 46.57 \(\pm\) 1.77%. The obtained results are in line with the results of other authors who showed the water content in black garlic at the level from 29.88% to 46.06% [36; 37; 42]. The moisture content is an important parameter influencing the consistency and texture of black garlic. As reported in the literature, the optimal moisture content ensuring appropriate softness, elasticity, and firmness of black garlic is 40-50%. The loss of water content up to 35-40% makes the product less flexible, and the decrease in humidity below 35% results in the product being too dry, hard, inelastic, and unfit for consumption [37; 42]. In the process of producing black garlic, a decrease in water content is observed, which depends on the conditions of the fermentation process, such as humidity, temperature, and heat treatment time, with a lower moisture content at higher temperatures [36]. It is true that there are studies on the impact of the garlic fermentation process on its humidity [37; 42], but their comparison is very difficult due to the too large diversity of key conditions of this process, i.e., temperature, humidity, and heat treatment time. The water activity of raw garlic was on average \(0.97\pm 0.01\), which is in line with the results of other authors (0.97-0.98) [36; 43], while the \(\mathrm{a_{w}}\) of GR was significantly higher than that of GREcol. The garlic fermentation process decreased the \(\mathrm{a_{w}}\) parameter by an average of about 0.07, while BGEcol was characterized by the lowest value of this parameter among all the subjects. The results of our own research are similar to the results of other authors who showed the \(\mathrm{a_{w}}\) of black garlic on the level from 0.91 to 0.98 [43].