Atmospheric cold plasma process for vegetable leaf decontamination: A feasibility study on radicchio (red chicory, Cichorium intybus L.)

Abstract

Cold plasma is a novel non-thermal technology that could be used for large scale leaf decontamination in food manufacturing as alternative to chlorine washing. The effect of atmospheric cold plasma apparatus on the safety, quality and antioxidant activity of radicchio (red chicory, Cichorium intybus L.) was investigated after treatment and during storage. Cold plasma treatment caused significant changes to the external appearance of the radicchio leaves during storage as assessed by a sensory and image analysis. Chroma values of radicchio leaves were also affected by the cold plasma treatments. The antioxidant activity of radicchio leaves, assessed by the ABTS and ORAC assays, was not affected by cold plasma treatments (15 and 30 min). E. coli inoculated on radicchio leaves was significantly reduced after 15 min cold plasma treatment. However, a 30 min plasma treatment was necessary to achieve a significant reduction of L. monocytogenes counts. Atmospheric cold plasma appears to be a promising technology for the decontamination of leafy vegetables when applied under the optimised conditions.

Translation of plasma technology from the lab to the food industry

“…Based upon these and other [17] findings RH is likely to be a critical control parameter for many food decontamination applications and consequently the influence of environmental RH on the plasma induced chemistries and their resultant effects on the target should be understood. Staphylococcus aureus.…”

Plazmové technologie v potravinářském průmyslu: mini-review

“…The study of Pasquali et al (2016) proved the positive effect on Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli bacteria decontamination of red chicory leaves, but signifi cant changes in quality were observed. The quality remained relatively intact immediately after the cold plasma treatments whereas signifi cant impact even in terms of visual quality was already observed after 1 day of storage with respect to the control untreated sample.…”

Nonthermal plasma for pesticide and microbial elimination on fruits and vegetables: an overview

“…NTP for decontamination of foods and food processing surface, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, has recently drawn a lot of attention due to consumer demand for safe, nutritious, high-quality and fresh appearance produce without pesticide residues (Lacombe et al, 2015;Pasquali et al, 2016). Research has illustrated that it is possible to reduce or remove a number of pesticide residues by applying NTP (Table 1).…”