MRI of plants and foods

The importance and prospects for MRI as applied to intact plants and to foods are presented in view of one of humanity's most pressing concerns, the sustainable and healthy feeding of a worldwide increasing population. Intact plants and foods have in common that their functionality is determined by complex multiple length scale architectures. Intact plants have an additional level of complexity since they are living systems which critically depend on transport and signalling processes between and within tissues and organs. The combination of recent cutting-edge technical advances and integration of MRI accessible parameters has the perspective to contribute to breakthroughs in understanding complex regulatory plant performance mechanisms. In food science and technology MRI allows for quantitative multi-length scale structural assessment of food systems, non-invasive monitoring of heat and mass transport during shelf-life and processing, and for a unique view on food properties under shear. These MRI applications are powerful enablers of rationally (re)designed food formulations and processes. Limitations and bottlenecks of the present plant and food MRI methods are mainly related to short T2 values and susceptibility artefacts originating from small air spaces in tissues/materials. We envisage cross-fertilisation of solutions to overcome these hurdles in MRI applications in plants and foods. For both application areas we witness a development where MRI is moving from highly specialised equipment to mobile and downscaled versions to be used by a broad user base in the field, greenhouse, food laboratory or factory.