Water transfer analysis in pork meat supported by NMR imaging

NMR proton density imaging was used to study isothermal and unidirectional drying of pork semi membranosus muscle samples at temperatures of 12, 16 and 20 degreesC. An independent calibration of the transversal relaxation time T-2 as a function of the moisture content was carried out to convert the signal amplitude into moisture content. Due to spatial heterogeneity in drying, 2D images were needed to assess the evolution of 1D moisture profiles. The relationship between the effective water diffusivity (D) was calculated in function of water content (X) using the Boltzman transformation which needs no a priori on the relationship D = f(X); the effect of lipid content, temperature and fibre direction on this relationship were also studied. In all cases a decrease in water content brought about a decrease in D. A slight increase in lipid content led to a dramatic decrease in D. The fibre direction relative to water movement had a negligible effect. No significative differences in D between the three temperatures were observed, due to variability in the chemical composition of the samples. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.