A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technique for Quantitative Mapping of Moisture and Fat in a Cheese Block

¹ University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108

Separate magnetic resonance images of water and fat of oil-in-water emulsions and cheese blocks were obtained using the chemical shift selective suppression technique. With this technique, the proton signals emitted from water can be readily separated from those emitted from fat in the same sample through a single experiment using magnetic resonance imaging. Relaxation compensation was made to improve the quality of suppression. The experiment using oil-in-water emulsions demonstrated an excellent linear relationship between the intensity of the signal and the concentrations of water or fat. Images of a cheese slice showing only water or fat revealed that moisture distribution was less uniform than was fat distribution. Moisture contents determined by the magnetic resonance imaging technique were very close to those obtained by the oven-drying method.

Key Words: cheese • chemical shift selective • magnetic resonance imaging • moisture and fat distribution

Submitted on November 13, 1996
Accepted on July 11, 1997