Application of magnetic resonance imaging to pre- and post-harvest studies of fruits and vegetables

As magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems with cryomagnets large enough to accommodate samples of interest to postharvest researchers become more accessible, MRI will come to be regarded as an integral component in pre- and post-harvest investigations of physiological changes in fruit and vegetables. The non-invasive, non-destructive attributes of H-1 MRI, and its ability to provide highly resolved spatial information concerning the distribution and magnetic environment of water in soft tissues, makes it an attractive technique for probing such samples. In reports to date, examination of the quality, histology, histochemistry and structural characteristics of samples have been emphasised. These and other applications pertaining to the study of fruits and vegetables are reviewed, as well as recent developments that employ nuclear magnetic resonance principles as on-line sensors in postharvest sorting and processing situations. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.