*2.3. VI Experiments*

The VI experiments were carried at a pilot plant scale in the Institute of Food Engineering for Development at Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain). The equipment used was described by Fito et al. [13]. In all trials, the sliced fruit samples were immersed in isotonic sucrose aqueous solutions (aw = 0.994 ± 0.003), and a vacuum pressure of 50 mbar was applied for 10 min. Subsequently, atmospheric pressure was restored, keeping the fruit slices immersed in the impregnation liquid for 10 min more. The impregnation parameters allow us to quantify the volumetric fraction of liquid incorporated into the porous structure and the volumetric deformation of the sample after the vacuum stage (X1 and γ1) and at the end of the process (X and γ). The effective porosity (εe) provides information on the volumetric fraction of pores that are filled during the VI experiments. All the parameters were calculated using the model equations proposed by Fito et al. [14].
