By Julia Kerr
High pressure assisted infusion of nutrients into food is in situ monitored with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The model food used here is peeled apple flesh. The nuclear spin relaxation properties of the water surrounding the apple flesh are enhanced by adding paramagnetic manganese cations for MRI relaxation contrast during pressurization. This work tracks the efficiency of pressure induced nutrient infusion in situ, demonstrating that pressure gating and ramping offer no nutrient mass transport advantage over operation at constant pressure and that the presence of a peel expectedly disrupts solute transport into the fruit. High pressure assisted infusion, with all pressurization schemes studied here, yields nearly 100-fold faster infusion times than at ambient pressure.