Approach for monitoring the dynamic states of water in shrimp during drying process with LF-NMR and MRI

The dynamic states of water in shrimp during drying process were investigated by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance and magnetic resonance imaging. With the extension of drying time, the transverse relaxation time of immobilized and free water significantly decreased, illustrating their mobility reduced. The signal per mass of immobilized water also decreased significantly, indicating its remarkable loss during drying process. Magnetic resonance imaging results revealed that the water signal intensity decreased from the external surface to inner regions of shrimp. Good correlations between the moisture content, hardness, chewiness, cohesiveness, L*, a* and nuclear magnetic resonance T2 parameters were observed by linear regression analysis.