Recent advances in time domain NMR & MRI sensors and their food applications

•MRI and NMR are non-destructive techniques that can be used to evaluate food quality.•Recent developments have resolved the limitations of using NMR/MRI in food industry.•With these developments, NMR/MRI relaxometry will play a larger role in industry.

Time domain nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are well-known non-destructive characterization techniques that are used to evaluate food quality. Time domain NMR is primarily based on relaxation and diffusion measurements from the signal coming from the whole sample whereas MRI enables visualization of the interiors of intact foods on a macroscopic scale without disturbing the sample based on the differences on relaxation and diffusion. A common perception that using NMR/MRI for testing food is costly is no longer valid with the advances in low-field bench top NMR/MRI instruments. This short review paper discusses the most recent developments and examples of time domain NMR and MRI based sensors for different food applications.