Potential uses of LF‐NMR and MRI in the study of water dynamics and quality measurement of fruits and vegetables

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of nondestructive imaging techniques for evaluating internal and external quality characteristics of fruits and vegetables and the future prospects of those technologies within the food industry. Low‐field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF‐NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are viable technologies in assessing water status, which can significantly impact the quality of fruits and vegetables' texture, tenderness, and microstructure. This review examined some of the most widely studied agricultural fruits and vegetables, described NMR/MRI techniques, and explained the benefits of their implementation in the assessment of internal quality attributes such as internal defects, water content, nutrition content, maturity, fruit firmness, and seed detection, as well as physicochemical and microbiological quality in both commercial and industrial applications. In spite of considerable developments in the quality measurement of fruits and vegetables and their products, the implementation of these techniques at an industrial level has been unsatisfactory. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: This paper aimed to present a magnificent knowledge about fruit/vegetable processing and preservation techniques pertaining to quality evaluation. If the appropriate skills and the introduced tools are combined and utilized in an innovative and suitable way, a high quality of fruit/vegetable products with a high nutritional value can be achieved. This will be beneficial for both producers and customers.