EVOLUTION OF WATER PROTON NUCLEAR MAGNETIC-RELAXATION DURING MILK COAGULATION AND SYNERESIS - STRUCTURAL IMPLICATIONS

NMR transverse relaxation times of water were obtained in skim milk af ter renneting and during the syneresis of the curd. New data analysis using the maximum entropy method was applied to relaxation curves to i nvestigate the distribution of water between the whey and the curd dur ing the shrinkage of the milk clot. It is shown that the T-2 relaxatio n behavior is best presented as a continuous spectrum of relaxation ti mes. Quantitative estimation of the amount of water inside the curd an d in the whey can then be obtained at any stage of syneresis in an und isturbed way. Furthermore, transverse relaxation data were interpreted in terms of the microscopic structure of the water compartment inside the curd, and information about the water pore;geometry and size dist ribution is deduced by inversion of NMR transverse relaxation data.