Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique has recently been applied in agriculture and food science. It has potential to visualize internal structure of foods in nondestructive way and provides spatial information which could make reconstruct of three-dimension. MRI system also has great advantage for tracking water in beans or seeds. This study intends to analyze the changes of water distribution of coffee beans during water up-taking process. Samples used in the experiment were ‘Robusta’ coffee beans (Vietnam G1, Scr18 polish). A 30mm diameter plastic disposable test tube was used to hold bean during water up-take process. The oil column was placed next to the tube to get and to use as a reference signal. The magnetic resonance imaging system which installed at Institution for Agricultural Machinery & ICT Convergence in Chonbuk National University was used to obtain magnetic resonance (MR) image data sets. 30 images are included in each image data sets with ‘Axial’ image plane direction. In experiment, we used ‘Gradient Echo 3D’ pulse sequence. The water uptake process was performed for 150 minutes and acquired image data sets in every 10 minutes. This study showed some coffee beans which extracted as region of interest (ROI) from each images to study the water uptake process.

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.