Characterizing water and fat distributions in fried foods is of major importance in terms of taste and
nutrition. The objective of this study was to introduce a new technique to quantify water and fat distributions
of chicken nuggets coated with methylcellulose (MC) through the use of magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) and NMR relaxometry. Multi-slice-multi-echo (MSME-Spin Echo based) images were
performed on a 1.03 T spectrometer for the whole chicken nuggets to obtain relaxation time distribution
of different regions (core and crust) of the nugget. MSME images provided the relaxation spectra of the
core and crust separately and showed that relaxation times and relative areas of the proton pools in crust
and core regions are correlated (mostly, R2 > 0.85) with moisture and fat content. Results demonstrated
that MSME images in combination with T2 relaxometry are appropriate tools to quantify spatial water
and fat distribution in various food products.