Korea is the second largest coffee consuming country in Asia after the Philippines. For modern people, coffee has jumped over a favorite food and grown into a single culture. There are many processing ways to make coffee. In this study, we utilized magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) based on the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR) and achieved to acquire images with an non-destructive and non-invasive way. The samples we used in the experiment were ‘Robusta’ coffee bean(Congo). Magnetic resonance(MR) image sets were acquired using a MRI system, installed at Institution for Agricultural Machinery & ICT Convergence at Chonbuk National University. From the raw phase(Green Bean stage) to the roasted phase, we obtained MR images from each phase to monitor the internal changes. We divided experiment into 5 stages, starting with ‘Green Bean’ phase to ‘Roasted’ phase. We obtained images every 6 hours during the ‘Fermentation’ phase and every 3 hours during the ‘Dry’ phase. In MRI, we used a gradient echo pulse sequence to scan fast and to take images right after each experiment stage ends. The direction of imaging plane was coronal 30 images with 64 mm x 64 mm field of view(FOV). As MRI uses the magnetic properties of nuclei which especially hydrogen nuclei from water molecules, images could see clearly with sufficient moisture, but in ‘Dry’ phase, images obtained with noise involved. These result suggested that MRI technique was an efficient method to monitor the moisture distribution changes inside the coffee beans.

• Seung Hoon Baek(Dept. of Bioindustrial Machinery Eng., Chonbuk National University)
• Seong Min Kim(Dept. of Bioindustrial Machinery Eng., Chonbuk National University)
• Myoung Nim Shin(Dept. of Food Science & Technology, Chonbuk National University)
• Yong Seob Jeong(Dept. of Food Science & Technology, Chonbuk National University)