Effect of Plasma-Activated Water on the Microbial Decontamination and Food Quality of Thin Sheets of Bean Curd

Abstract

Thin sheets of bean curd may serve as an excellent source of nutrition for microorganisms and are therefore prone to contamination, which can be harmful to public health. This study evaluated the influence of plasma-activated water (PAW) on the microbial load and food quality of thin sheets of bean curd. Treatment for 30 min with PAW that was activated for 90 s reduced the microbial count by 1.26 and 0.91 log10 CFU/g for total aerobic bacteria and total yeasts and molds on thin sheets of bean curd, respectively. The effect of PAW on microbial inactivation strongly depended on the activation time for PAW generation and the soaking time of the thin sheets of bean curd in PAW. Further, PAW could maintain total isoflavone content, sensory properties, and most of the textural properties of the thin sheets of bean curd. Although PAW treatments caused significant changes in color parameters of the thin sheets of bean curd, the appearance acceptance was not significantly influenced. This work highlights the potential application of PAW in the microbial decontamination of thin sheets of bean curd.

Nonthermal plasma‐activated water: A comprehensive review of this new tool for enhanced food safety and quality

“…Sterile distilled water (SDW), deionized water (DIW), reverse osmosis water (ROW), and tap water (TW) were used to produce PAW reported in several studies, particularly in microbial inactivation (Lin et al., 2019; Royintarat, Seesuriyachan, Boonyawan, Choi, & Wattanutchariya, 2019; ten Bosch, Köhler, Ortmann, Wieneke, & Viöl, 2017). However, SDW and DIW are the most frequently used and have shown optimal efficacy for microbial deactivation in several in vitro studies (Royintarat et al., 2019; Tian et al., 2015; Traylor et al., 2011; Vlad, Martin, Toth, Papp, & Anghel, 2019; Xiang et al., 2018; Q. Zhang et al., 2013) as well as a study on food treatments (Choi et al., 2019; Gavahian & Khaneghah, 2019; Kang et al., 2019; Ma et al., 2016; Xiang, Wang, et al., 2019; Zhai, Liu, Xiang, Lyu, & Shen, 2019). In addition, Traylor et al.…”

“…Both power and activation time are associated with the physicochemical properties of PAW, including pH, ORP, electrical conductivity (EC), ROS, and RNS (Choi et al., 2019; J. Guo et al., 2017; Kojtari et al., 2013; Laurita, Barbieri, Gherardi, Colombo, & Lukes, 2015; Lin et al., 2019; Ma et al., 2015; Royintarat et al., 2019; ten Bosch et al., 2017; Tian et al., 2015; Vlad et al., 2019; Xiang et al., 2018; Zhai et al., 2019; Zhou et al., 2018), which affect microorganism inactivation in foods (Choi et al., 2019; J. Guo et al., 2017; Lin et al., 2019; Ma et al., 2015; Zhai et al., 2019). In particular, higher power and longer activation generate a higher ORP and cause lower pH values for PAW, which results in significant and higher antibacterial activity (Lin et al., 2019; Vaka et al., 2019).…”

“…In addition, studies using air discharge rather than Ar or Ar/O 2 have also shown good performance for deactivating pathogenic microorganisms, in several in vitro studies (Kamgang‐Youbi et al., 2009; Laurita et al., 2015; Shen et al., 2016; Xiang et al., 2018; Zhou et al., 2018) and several studies of food treatments (Gavahian & Khaneghah, 2019; J. Guo et al., 2017; I. Joshi, Salvi, Schaffner, & Karwe, 2018; Kang et al., 2019; Liao, Bai, et al., 2019; Lin et al., 2019; Ma et al., 2016; Xiang, Liu, et al., 2019; Zhai et al., 2019). Inguglia et al.…”

“…With the APPJ system based on gliding arc discharge, Zhai et al. (2019) used PAW activated for 15, 30, 60, and 90 s and further treated bean curds for 10, 20, and 30 min. The authors subsequently reported that treatment for 30 min with PAW activation for 90 s reduced the microbial count by 1.26 and 0.91 log CFU/g of the total aerobic bacteria and total yeasts and molds on thin sheets of bean curd, respectively (Zhai et al., 2019).…”

Effective pretreatment technologies for fresh foods aimed for use in central kitchen processing

“…PAW treatment could maintain the total isoflavone content, sensory characteristics, and most textural characteristics of the thin sheets of bean curd. 59 Treatment of chicken breasts with PAW activated for 60 s reduced the total number of Pseudomonas deceptionensis CM2 by 1.1 log (CFU)/g ; quality of the chicken breast could be well maintained. 60 Combined use of ultrasound and PAW could reduce the number Figure 3 Sterilization mechanism of plasma-activated water (PAW).…”