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A new proton ('H) NMR method, nuclear magnetic cross-relaxation spectroscopy, permits sensitive detection of immobilized polymer in starch samples. The 'H cross-relaxation spectrum reflects the amount and relative rigidity of immobilized starch chains. Cross-relaxation integrated spectral intensities for freshly gelatinized waxy maize starch were found to depend sensitively on starch concentration above 10 wt ?4 . Retrogradation is observed to introduce a broad component to the cross-relaxation

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The physical and chemical changes that occur in foods during growth, harvest, processing, storage, preparation, and consumption are often very difficult to measure and quantify. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a pioneering technology, originally developed in the medical field, that is now being used in a large number of disciplines to study a wide variety of materials and processes. In food science, MRI techniques allow the interior of foods to be imaged noninvasively and nondestructively. These images can then be quantified to yield information about several processes and material properties, such as mass and heat transfer, fat and ice crystallization, gelation, water mobidity, composition and volume changes, food stability and maturation, flow behavior, and temperature. This article introduces the fundamental principles of MRI, presents some of the recent advances in MRI technology, and reviews some of the current applications of MRI in food science research.

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