A Review on Non-thermal Atmospheric Plasma for Food Preservation: Mode of Action, Determinants of Effectiveness, and Applications

Abstract

Non-thermal Atmospheric Plasma (NTAP) is a cutting-edge technology which has gained much attention during the last decade in the food-processing sector as a promising technology for food preservation and maintenance of food safety, with minimal impact on the quality attributes of foods, thanks to its effectiveness in microbial inactivation, including of pathogens, spoilage fungi and bacterial spores, simple design, ease of use, cost-effective operation, short treatment times, lack of toxic effects, and significant reduction of water consumption. This review article provides a general overview of the principles of operation and applications of NTAP in the agri-food sector. In particular, the numerous studies carried out in the last decade aimed at deciphering the influence of different environmental factors and processing parameters on the microbial inactivation attained are discussed. In addition, this review also considers some important studies aimed at elucidating the complex mechanism of microbial inactivation by NTAP. Finally, other potential applications of NTAP in the agri-food sector, apart from food decontamination, are briefly described, and some limitations for the immediate industrial implementation of NTAP are discussed (e.g., impact on the nutritional and sensory quality of treated foods; knowledge on the plasma components and reactive species responsible for the antimicrobial activity; possible toxicity of some of the chemical species generated; scale-up by designing fit-for-purpose equipment).

Enhancing the antibacterial activity of PMAP‐37 by increasing its hydrophobicity

“…*p < .05 and **p < .01, compared with mice treated with PMAP-37. Scoring standard: 1 indicated no pathology, 2 indicated perivascular infiltrates, 3 indicated perivascular and interstitial infiltrates affecting <20% of the section, 4 indicated perivascular and interstitial infiltrates affecting 20% to 50% of the section, and 5 indicated perivascular and interstitial infiltrates affecting >50% of the section considered (Awuah, Ramaswamy, & Economides, 2007). In addition, traditional antibiotics as feed additives are being eliminated in the feed industry, which provides a possibility for the use of AMPs as feed additives.…”

Foodborne Viruses and Innovative Non-Thermal Food-Processing Technologies

“…The term plasma is referred to designate the state of an ionized gas in chemistry and physics [69]. The CP is generated by the application of an electromagnetic or electric field to a gas.…”

“…The most important active species generated by plasma discharge are neutral or excited molecules and atoms, UV photons, negative and positive ions, free radicals and electrons. The presence of these active agents depends also on the plasma source, but the majority of reactive species are: vibrationally and electronically excited oxygen and nitrogen, reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as atomic oxygen O, singlet oxygen 1 [69]. Many research works have verified the significance of the CP in disinfection of materials in contact with food, as well as decontamination and preservation of food [68].…”

“…Also, if humidity is high, electrically charged components such as H 2 O+, OH • radical, OH– anion, or H 2 O 2 are present. All these active compounds proved to have antimicrobial activity against various microorganisms including viruses [ 69 ].…”

The emerging role of cold atmospheric plasma in glioblastoma therapy

“…Plasmas can be created in the laboratory by applying an electric or electromagnetic field as the external source of energy. [ 30,31 ] The produced plasma, as mentioned previously, has two major categories, based on the temperature of the electrons compared with the other particles. In the case of a thermal plasma, the electrons and heavy particles are in a thermal equilibrium.…”