The low‐field NMR studies the change in cellular water in tilapia fillet tissue during different drying conditions

• Published in: Food science & nutrition Vol. 9; no. 5; pp. 2644 - 2657
• Main Authors: Luo, Jing, Li, Min, Zhang, Ying, Zheng, Man, Ming Ling, Chang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.05.2021; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Accuracy; Aquaculture; Bound water; cell membrane rupture; Cell membranes; Cold; Drying; Energy efficiency; entrapped water; Fillets; Fishes; Food; Food processing; Food quality; free water; Heat; Humidity; Investigations; low‐field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF‐NMR) technology; Moisture content; Muscles; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Original Research; Processed foods; Raw materials; Spectrum analysis; Tilapia; tilapia fillet; Ultrasonic imaging; Water; China; cell membrane rupture; bound water; entrapped water; free water; low‐field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF‐NMR) technology; tilapia fillet
• ISSN: 2048-7177; 2048-7177
• DOI: 10.1002/fsn3.2221

The muscle is a highly organized tissue, where there are three different moistures including free water, entrapped water, and bound water. These moistures were distributed in intercellular spaces, intracellular spaces, and other solute environments, respectively. Understanding the moisture migration in different environments is crucial to enhance energy efficiency and improve the quality of processed food. Therefore, the tilapia fillets were used to experiment, and the low‐field nuclear magnetic resonance technique is used to measure the change in different moistures during the drying process. The study found that free water is the highest when cell membranes started to rupture. In addition, it also observed that the cell membrane ruptures at different stages of drying. The result of this study provides critical information that could be used to guide the study of the dynamic mechanisms underlying drying and the development of drying technology for tilapia fillets and similar aquatic products. With the progress of drying, the surface and core temperature of the tilapia fillets continues to rise which leads to the decline of free water content, in addition, it was found that the free water is the highest when cell membranes started to rupture by the low‐field nuclear magnetic resonance technique. As the temperature increasing, the free water content appears a peak because the exposed intracellular water is able to readjust rapidly to become free water. The cell membrane ruptures at different stages of drying.