Use of magnetic resonance imaging to study the binding of manganese ions in brine‐cured pork

Abstract

Saturation recovery Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has been used to study the dependence of the water proton NMR longitudinal relaxation rate (T,-I) on Mn2+ concentration in pork which had been cured with 53, 102, and 193 mg g-' NaCl solutions. Those data are discussed in the context of meat swelling, determined independently by gravimetric water uptake. The utility of manganese ions as a paramagnetic tracer to probe the ability of brined pork to bind Mn2+ ions was further demonstrated in a two-dimensional inter-diffusion experiment which visualized perfusion of a given manganese ion concentration through a cylindrical sample of 102 mg g-' NaCl cured pork.