A Cold Plasma Technology for Ensuring the Microbiological Safety and Quality of Foods

Abstract

Changing consumers’ taste for chemical and thermally processed food and preference for perceived healthier minimally processed alternatives is a challenge to food industry. At present, several technologies have found usefulness as choice methods for ensuring that processed food remains unaltered while guaranteeing maximum safety and protection of consumers. However, the effectiveness of most green technology is limited due to the formation of resistant spores by certain foodborne microorganisms and the production of toxins. Cold plasma, a recent technology, has shown commendable superiority at both spore inactivation and enzymes and toxin deactivation. However, the exact mechanism behind the efficiency of cold plasma has remained unclear. In order to further optimize and apply cold plasma treatment in food processing, it is crucial to understand these mechanisms and possible factors that might limit or enhance their effectiveness and outcomes. As a novel non-thermal technology, cold plasma has emerged as a means to ensure the microbiological safety of food. Furthermore, this review presents the different design configurations for cold plasma applications, analysis the mechanisms of microbial spore and biofilm inactivation, and examines the impact of cold plasma on food compositional, organoleptic, and nutritional quality.

Nonthermal Plasma Effects on Fungi: Applications, Fungal Responses, and Future Perspectives

“…To fulfill the needs of an ever-growing population, it is necessary to ensure a sufficient amount of high-quality raw materials. In this case, NTP is a suitable alternative to the already used technologies [ 102 , 103 , 104 ]. Plasma has been effectively used to decontaminate various food surfaces such as fruit, vegetables, and meat ( Table 2 ).…”

Dry surface biofilms in the food processing industry: An overview on surface characteristics, adhesion and biofilm formation, detection of biofilms, and dry sanitization methods

“…Cell membrane disruption, oxidation of membrane lipids, erosion of cells and organic material, corrosion damage to the protective inner membrane of spores, and spore DNA damage (Hage et al, 2022;Nwabor et al, 2022;Rao et al, 2020)…”

“…Cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) Plasma is ubiquitous in the universe and is considered the fourth state of matter (i.e., solid, liquid, gas, and plasma) (Nwabor et al, 2022;Shen et al, 2022). It is generated when gases are ionized with free electrons, ions, atoms, neutral molecules, and photons (Shen et al, 2022).…”

Recent advances in radio frequency, pulsed light, and cold plasma technologies for food safety

“…Thus, there is no risk of thermally modifying heat‐sensitive foods (Thirumdas et al, 2020). In recent publications, Nwabor et al (2022) have described the most promising CP application designs, the mechanisms by which spore‐formers and microbial spores can be inactivated, and how plasma treatment can disrupt biofilms. Notably, both PL and CP technologies can be applied in sterilizing or reducing the microbial population of packaging material surfaces or food contact materials in processing plants.…”