Characterization of water distribution in bread during storage using magnetic resonance imaging

A soy bread of fully acceptable quality and containing 49% soy ingredients (with or without 5% almond powder) has been recently developed in our laboratory. An investigation on water distribution and mobility, as probed by proton signal intensity and T2 magnetic resonance images, during storage was designed to examine possible relations between water states and hindered staling rate upon soy or soy-almond addition. Water proton distribution throughout soy-containing loaves was found to be very homogeneous in fresh breads with and without almond, with minimal water migration occurring during prolonged storage. In contrast, traditional wheat bread displayed an inhomogeneous water proton population that tended to change (with higher moisture migration towards the outer perimeter of the slice) during storage. Similar results were found for water mobility throughout the loaves, as depicted in T2 images. On intensity images of all considered bread varieties, the outer perimeter corresponding to the crust exhibited lower signal intensity due to decreased water content. Higher T2 values were found in the crust of soy breads with and without almond, which were attributed to lipids. The results indicated that the addition of soy to bread improved the homogeneous distribution of water molecules, which may hinder the staling rate of soy-containing breads. However, incorporation of almond had little effect on the water proton distribution or mobility of soy breads.