A review on plasma‐activated water and its application in the meat industry

Abstract

Meat is a nutritious food with a short shelf life, making it challenging to ensure safety, quality, and nutritional value. Foodborne pathogens and oxidation are the main concerns that lead to health risks and economic losses. Conventional approaches like hot water, steam pasteurization, and chemical washes for meat decontamination improve safety but cause nutritional and quality issues. Plasma‐activated water (PAW) is a potential alternative to thermal treatment that can reduce oxidation and microbial growth, an essential factor in ensuring safety, quality, and nutritional value. This review explores the different types of PAW and their physiochemical properties. It also outlines the reaction pathways involved in the generation of short‐lived and long‐lived reactive nitrogen and oxygen species (RONS) in PAW, which contribute to its antimicrobial abilities. The review also highlights current studies on PAW inactivation against various planktonic bacteria, as well as critical processing parameters that can improve PAW inactivation efficacy. Promising applications of PAW for meat curing, thawing, and decontamination are discussed, with emphasis on the need to understand how RONS in PAW affect meat quality. Recent reports on combining PAW with ultrasound, mild heating, and non‐thermal plasma to improve inactivation efficacy are also presented. Finally, the need to develop energy‐efficient systems for the production and scalability of PAW is discussed for its use as a potential meat disinfectant without compromising meat quality.

Recent advances in activated water systems for the postharvest management of quality and safety of fresh fruits and vegetables

“…However, it should be noted that each plasma source and device have its own merits and demerits. For example, DBD has a larger electrode surface area and can effectively distribute desired species/plasma into water, with up to 4 weeks life span of reactive species (Subramanian et al., 2021); however, the electric field applied to the gas must be high enough to produce high‐energy electrons to generate plasma (Hadinoto et al., 2023). Water interaction with atmospheric plasma exhibits acidified solution containing various reactive oxygen nitrogen species (RONS).…”