Effects of coating formulation on structural changes of turkey nugget during frying: MRI evaluation

Abstract

Application of nondestructive techniques combined with image processing techniques has been increasing in investigating the internal structure of food products. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of these methods. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of coating formulation on structural properties of turkey nugget samples (turkey nugget with typical batter, tragacanth-containing batter and tragacanth) by MRI. Results revealed that the changes caused by the batter formulation could also be examined using the tomographic images. The results also indicated that the brightness of the MRI images of the nugget core and crust decreased during frying. The core of the nugget with the tragacanth-containing batter was brighter revealing its higher moisture content. Furthermore, the nugget core was less reduced in this sample compared with the other ones. This research aimed to present a valuable knowledge about nugget frying pertaining to quality evaluation.

Keywords

• Nugget
• Deep fat frying
• Structural characterization
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• Image processing