High-resolution solid-state NMR of food materials

Many foods and ingredients are best described as solids. High-resolution NMR is conventionally used to obtain detailed chemical information on liquid-state systems; examples are discussed in other articles in this issue. Recent advances in techniques and hardware now allow the routine acquisition of high-resolution 13C NMR spectra from solid materials. Commercial hardware has been available for more than a decade and many applications to solids in a wide variety of areas have been described. Although 1H is the most abundant NMR nucleus in solid food materials, there are technical difficulties in high-resolution solid-state 1H NMR that make 13C the nucleus of choice. This article outlines some of the information of relevance to food science that has been obtained recently using 13C NMR.