Post Harvest Applications of Cold Plasma Technology: A Review

Advances in Research

Cold plasma is an emerging nonthermal technology primarily used for microbial disinfection and surface modification. Nowadays, the principle of plasma surface modification is exploited in food and agriculture. The aim of the present review is to give some insights on cold plasma technology exploitation for enhancement of seed germination. The seed germination rate can be increased on application of cold plasma by both direct and indirect treatments. Recently, the indirect treatment through the application of plasma activated water (PAW) has drawn some attention. The formation of reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species in the plasma are mainly responsible for Mini-review Article

Journal of Horticultural Science, 2018

Fig (Ficus carica L.) is a perishable fruit and it needs to use new techniques in order to increase shelf life of this product. In present study, atmospheric cold plasma as a non-thermal treatment was utilized for preserving fresh fig quality. Dielectric barrier discharge plasma was applied to fruits in two steps. Durations of first treatments were 1 and 5 minutes. Based on this step results, main experiments were conducted for 30, 90 and 180s and cold plasma was applied to packed and unpacked fig samples. Quality was sensory evaluated in terms of color, texture, odor, appearance and overall acceptance. Firmness, color indices (L*, a* and b*),, total soluble solids and pH were also determined. Subjective measurements showed significant shelf life improvement of treated figs compared to control samples while objective quality attributes were not changed except pH and a* which are not undesired. Direct application of plasma for 90 s and in-package treatment for 30 s were suggested for...

Food and Bioprocess Technology, 2014

Atmospheric cold plasmas (ACPs) have received increased attention in recent years as a novel decontamination technology in food and biological sciences research. Cold plasma treatment is especially desirable in food industries for in-package decontamination as it prevents postprocessing contamination. ACPs are often obtained using noble gases or air. This work reports the decontamination of strawberries inside a sealed package with two different gas mixtures, viz. 65 % O 2 +16 % N 2 +19 % CO 2 and 90 % N 2 + 10 % O 2 . The electrical parameters of the dielectric barrier discharge obtained at 60 kV rms (50 Hz) applied voltage over a 40-mm gap have been characterised using capacitive (charge-voltage) measurements and show for each gas mixture an increase in transferred power and charge in the presence of the fresh produce. The background micro-flora of the strawberries was reduced by an average of~3.0 log cycles from the initial levels of 5 log 10 CFU/g in 300 s of in-package ACP discharge. Plasma treatments with the two gas mixtures showed similar effects on microbial reduction levels. Strawberries treated and stored in a high oxygen gas mixture showed favourable quality results with similar respiration rates and an 11 % higher firmness than the control stored for 24 h.

Journal of Applied Microbiology, 2017

Food safety is a critical public health issue for consumers and the food industry because microbiological contamination of food causes considerable social and economic burdens on health care. Most foodborne illness comes from animal production, but as of the mid-1990s in the United States and more recently in the European Union, the contribution of fresh produce to foodborne illness has rapidly increased. Recent studies have suggested that sterilisation with nonthermal plasma could be a viable alternative to the traditional methods for the decontamination of heat-sensitive materials or food because this technique proves capable of eliminating microorganisms on surfaces without altering the substrate. In the last ten years, researchers have used nonthermal plasma in a variety of food inoculated with many bacterial species. All of these experiments were conducted exclusively in a laboratory and, to our knowledge, this technique has not been used in an industrial setting. Thus, the purpose of this review is to understand whether this technology could be used at the industrial level. The latest researches using nonthermal plasma on fresh produce were analysed. These evaluations have focused on the Log reduction of microorganisms and the treatment time.

Food Engineering Reviews

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...

Quality of life, 2016

New technologies had been developed to prolong postharves sustainability of horticultural crops. Technologies as hot air treatment or iridation with UV-C spectral emissions are among them. Al of them have positive and negative effects on quality of horticultural crops. Increasingly under research for decontamination of foods is cold plasma technology, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. Possibility of creating cold plasma under atmosferic presures (ACP) offers new preservation tool to reduce microbial infections of vegetable crops. Effects of atmosferic cold plasma on food quality, however, remains under researched.. In this study, tomato is treated with air ACP generated with an dielectric barrier discharge reactor (DBD). Changes in textural and color characteristics of two tomato fruit varieties after cold plasma treatment were analysed by performing TPA test and color measurements. The effect of air ACP on tomato texture and color was insignifi cant.

Foods (Basel, Switzerland), 2018

Cold plasma (CP) technology has proven very effective as an alternative tool for food decontamination and shelf-life extension. The impact of CP on food quality is very crucial for its acceptance as an alternative food processing technology. Due to the non-thermal nature, CP treatments have shown no or minimal impacts on the physical, chemical, nutritional and sensory attributes of various products. This review also discusses the negative impacts and limitations posed by CP technology for food products. The limited studies on interactions of CP species with food components at the molecular level offers future research opportunities. It also highlights the need for optimization studies to mitigate the negative impacts on visual, chemical, nutritional and functional properties of food products. The design versatility, non-thermal, economical and environmentally friendly nature of CP offers unique advantages over traditional processing technologies. However, CP processing is still in i...

Plasma Processes and Polymers

The potential of cold plasma as a food processing aid has been demonstrated for a range of processes and products. The potential applications of plasma technology are extensive and include: microbial decontamination, pest control, toxin elimination, food and package functionalisation and many others. However, studies reported to date have principally been at laboratory scale. This paper discusses the status and challenges of transferring the technology to the industry. The major challenges discussed for adoption of atmospheric plasma as a food processing tool by industry are: 1) demonstration of product/process specific efficacies; 2) development of process compatible technology designs and scale-up; 3) effective process control and validation; 4) regulatory approval and 5) consumer acceptance.

Emerging Technologies for Food Processing, 2014

Trends in Food Science & Technology, 2017

Background: Cold plasma (CP) is an emerging technology, which has attracted the attention of scientists globally. It was originally developed for ameliorating the printing and adhesion properties of polymers plus a variety of usage domains in electronics. In the last decade, its applications were extended into the food industry as a powerful tool for non-thermal processing, with diverse forms for utilization. Scope and Approach: This review presents an overview of recent studies on the application of cold plasma in the food industry. Specific areas discussed include microbial decontamination of food products, packaging material processing, functionality modification of food materials and dissipation of agrochemical residues. The application of CP has also been expanded into areas, such as hydrogenation of edible oils, mitigation of food allergy, inactivation of anti-nutritional factors, tailoring of seed germination performance and effluent management. In addition, the paper provides a summary of

Journal of Agricultural Machinery, 2024

Today, almost half of the total human food, especially in Asia, is directly supplied from grains, and nearly 70% of the cultivated area of the world, which is one billion hectares, is used for growing grains. Therefore, nondestructive methods must be found and developed to increase seed quality in agriculture and industry. Cold plasma is a novel and efficient method that can be used in the agricultural and food sectors for the inactivation of surface microorganisms and the excitation of seeds. This review presents a summary of the effectiveness of cold plasma treatment on the characteristics of four important cereal plants: wheat, rice, corn, and barley. The focus is on the effects of this treatment on seed germination, surface property changes, water uptake of seeds, growth parameters of root, shoot, and seedling length, biomass parameters, and metabolic activities. By examining the research conducted by the researchers, it can be seen that the cereal seeds treated with cold plasma had better germination power, water absorption, shoot length, growth efficiency, shoot and root weight, and metabolic activity. This review can provide insight into the promising trends in utilizing plasma as a method to decrease the prevalence of harmful plant diseases transmitted through seeds and reduce the dormancy of hard seeds.

Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agrícola e Ambiental, 2024

This is an open-access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Efeito da técnica de plasma frio na qualidade de frutas armazenadas-Estudo de caso em maçãs

Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 2014

Cold plasma is increasingly under research for decontamination of foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. The effect of cold plasma on food quality, however, remains under researched. This study investigates the effects of cold plasma generated within a sealed package from a dielectric barrier discharge on the physical quality parameters and respiration rates of cherry tomatoes. Respiration rates and weight loss were monitored continuously, while other parameters are reported at the end of storage period. Differences among weight loss, pH and firmness for control and treated cherry tomatoes were insignificant towards the end of storage life. Changes in respiration rates and colour of tomatoes were recorded as a function of treatment, which were not drastic. The results implicate that cold plasma could be employed as a means for decontamination of cherry tomatoes while retaining product quality.

Cold plasma is a novel method that has proved to be capable as a sanitizing process due to its antimicrobial effects. This study aims to highlight the optimization of this technique for maintaining freshness and safety of fresh-cut lettuce without using any other chemical preservatives. The used atmospheric pressure plasma jet is driven by a radio frequency generator (27.12 MHz) with argon as working gas. The jet has been used at different operating powers in order to evaluate the optimal process parameters that do not affect the product quality. The quality of the lettuce leaves was assessed by optical methods such as chlorophyll fluorescence imaging analysis, fluorescence spectroscopy and colour measurement before and after plasma treatment, and also during the storage period. Depending on the applied process parameters, the effects of the cold plasma treatment on the quality of lettuce leaves can be controlled. However, the treatment conditions have to be adapted to each type of commodity.

Jurnal Teknik Pertanian Lampung (Journal of Agricultural Engineering), 2020

Bringing plasma into food processing is a relatively new measure for food engineer and scientist. It is simple in generation, low energy requirement, high efficacy, and easy to apply, pave its way to be a new prospective scenario in processing more safety food recently. Plasma is the fourth matter after solid, liquid and gas contain various reactive species generated by electrical discharge from 10-120kV. Those are Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen (RONS) comprising various reactive species including nitric oxide (NO), superoxide (O2-), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2); singlet oxygen (1O2); ozone (O3) and even hydroxyl radical (-OH) which can and do play important roles in biological systems. This brief review describes plasma interaction with the biological system and pesticides compound and sums up some finding on the nonthermal application on two main consideration of food safety namely microorganisms decontamination and pesticides residue degradation.