Rapid quantification of muscle fat content and subcutaneous adipose tissue in fish using MRI

► Fat content in flesh and subcutaneous fat were measured by MRI in fish cutlets. ► We developed a method to correct the inhomogeneities of the signal in MRI. ► Several cutlets could be measured together with less than 3min per sample. ► No differences were found comparing fresh and frozen–thawed cutlets. ► Results were highly correlated with vision and NMR. The potentiality of MRI to quantify fat content in flesh and subcutaneous fat in fish cutlets was investigated. Low measurement time was aimed at in a view to handling large number of samples needed in selective breeding programs for example. Results on fresh and frozen–thawed cutlets were compared to assess this way of conservation. As MRI generates unwanted spatial variations of the signal, a correction method was developed enabling the measurement on several cutlets simultaneously in less than 3min per sample. For subcutaneous fat, the results were compared with vision measurements. High correlations between both techniques were found (R2=0.77 and 0.87 for the ventral and dorsal part). Fat in flesh was validated vs NMR measurements. No statistical difference was found between fresh and frozen–thawed cutlets. RMSE was respectively 0.8% and 0.89%. These results confirmed the potentiality of MRI for fat measurement in fish particularly for a large number of samples.