The ingress of water in cereal products is of great interest because of its relevance to the storage, drying, enzymatic activities and processing of starch-based products, but also for the formulation of controlled release materials. Among the various methods of approach of the hydration and release properties of starch-based products, the NMR techniques have the advantage of measuring the dynamic phenomena at various scales and non-invasively. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies are complementary to spectroscopic measurements since they probe mutual diffusion phenomena in complement to self-diffusion processes occurring in micrometer domains. Moreover, NMR data and images can be obtained in real time during processing operations, all without the need to stop the process to place the sample inside the magnet at various intervals. The presentation will show two methodologies. The first one is based on T1 measurements using an open and portable single‑sided MOUSE-NMR apparatus that makes possible the quantitation of small variations in water content in dough when heated, such as those that occur through the evaporation-condensation-diffusion mechanism. The second approach was developed to get water diffusion kinetics and swelling rate of starch-based materials dedicated to biomedical applications. The water uptake and its consequence on the material shape were studied using high-field magnetic resonance micro-imaging coupled with specific image processing.