Non destructive assessment of watercore in apples using MRI. Disorder Detection with HR-MAS

This work was carried out in the frame of the European project InsideFood (Integrated sensing and imaging devices for designing, monitoring and controlling microstructure of foods). The aim of this project is to provide technological solutions for exploring the microstructure of foods, by the development, combination and application of different non destructive techniques: X-ray CT, OCT, MRI, NMR, TRS and SRS. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used in order to detect watercore in three different varieties of apples: Ascara2, Rebellón and Tempera. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used under several sequences: 2D T2- weighed sequences, and 3D sequences, proton density and T2- weighed, such as Fast Low Angle SHot (FLASH) and COMSPIRA 3D, all of them with varying acquisition times. A methabonomic study was made to some of these apples, to obtain a metabolic profile of apples affected by watercore, as an indication of the metabolic pathway involved in the disorder. Keywords: Non-destructive measurement, fruit, quality, tomography