The experimental results on the effect of grain treatment with ozone-air mixture on the level of artificial grain contamination with micromycetes are presented. The contamination dynamics for 1000 kg of wheat grain contaminated with Penicillium nordicum and Aspergillus flavus and stored in the prototype grain storage unit in ozone environment for 6 months is shown. The study on the effect of ozone on the growth inhibition of Aspergillus flavus for maize grain and Penicillium verrucosum for wheat grain in a 100 dm3 silo is presented. The effect of ozone on the content of aflatoxins in maize grain additionally contaminated with Aspergillus flavus is studied. The efficiency of ozone technologies for large-scale grain storage, as well as for reducing fungal contamination and controlling mycotoxin content in food grains, is shown.

The influence of the products of plasma chemical reactions (including ozone) on the storage of vegetables and fruits has been investigated. It has been shown that the products of plasma chemical reactions effectively suppress the growth of mold. For a number of vegetables and fruits, surface modification occurs, which leads to the loss of the "marketable" appearance. At the same time, the ripening rate of many products decreases.

The pilot studies have been conducted to determine the biocidal effects of ozone and plasma chemical treatment for 1, 2, and 3 h on the strain “Moldavian” of infectious rhinotracheitis virus, reference strain of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, atypical mycobacteria of the species Mycobacusleum phlei and archival strain of Aspergillus flavus artificially introduced into aqueous solution. It is shown that both treatments of aqueous solution contaminated with infectious rhinotracheitis virus have virucidal properties at the level of 95…100%. It was found that bactericidal (bacteriostatic) effect of ozone treatment for Escherichia coli fluid was 100% for all the time parameters. For plasma chemical treatment, the bacteriostatic effect (23%) was shown after the treatment within 3 h. The bactericidal (bacteriostatic) effect of ozone treatment for water samples contaminated with mycobacteria of the species M. phlei was only 65% at the treatment for 3 h. There was no bacteriostatic effect for plasma chemical treatment at any exposure. When studying the fungicidal (fungistatic) properties of ozone treatment for aqueous solution contaminated with a test culture of Aspergillus flavus, fungicidal properties were established (growth retardation by 95…98%). No fungicidal or fungistatic properties were shown for plasma chemical treatment.

The study was carried out at the Institute of Vegetable and Melon Farming of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine and the Department of Low-Temperature Non-equilibrium Plasma Chemistry of the NSC "Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology" of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine using the varieties of winter garlic, such as Duchess and Merefyanskiy white. Pre-plant treatment with four-time repeatability was carried out 3-5 days before planting using an OzW Stream Ozone TM ozone generator. Laboratory studies of fungal diseases Fusarium and Penicillium progress on the treated material were carried out with four-time repeatability in wet chambers. The effect of ozone concentration of 10, 50, and 100 PPM and exposure time of 10, 60, and 180 min on infestation of garlic with black and green mold was studied.

The possibility and effectiveness of control of biotic contaminants (bacteria, micromycetes) with ozone and air activated by the plasma chemical reactor were studied as an alternative to the chemical methods of treatment using the model of hatching eggs. It was shown that as a result of the egg shell ozone treatment, bacterial contamination decreased by 3083 times after four days of treatment, and the level of microbiota decreased by 2.6 times after five days of treatment. As a result of the egg shell air treatment, bacterial contamination decreased by 30.56 times after three days of treatment, and the level of contamination with microscopic fungi decreased by 6.9 times on the fifth day of treatment. As the amount of OH radicals in the activated air increased, the level of bacterial culture decreased by 60 times on the third day of treatment, and the level of egg shell contamination with microscopic fungi decreased by 7.2 times on the fifth day of treatment.