In‐package cold plasma treatment to extend the shelf life of food

Abstract

Conventional food preservation methods such as heat treatment, irradiation, chemical treatment, refrigeration, and coating have various disadvantages, like loss of food quality, nutrition, and cost‐effectiveness. Accordingly, cold plasma is one of the new technologies for food processing and has played an important role in preventing food spoilage. Specifically, in‐package cold plasma has become a modern trend to decontaminate, process, and package food simultaneously. This strategy has proven successful in processing various fresh food ingredients, including spinach, fruits, vegetables, and meat. In particular, cold plasma treatment within the package reduces the risk of post‐processing contamination. Cryoplasm decontamination within packaging has been reported to reduce significantly the microbial load of many foods’ spoilage‐causing pathogens. However, studies are needed to focus more on the effects of in‐package treatments on endogenous enzyme activity, pest control, and removal of toxic pesticide residues. In this review, we comprehensively evaluated the efficacy of in‐package low‐temperature plasma treatment to extend the shelf life of various foods. The mechanisms by which cold plasma interacts with food were investigated, emphasizing its effects on pathogen reduction, spoilage mitigation, and surface modification. The review also critically assessed the effects of the treatments on food quality, regulatory considerations, and their potential as viable technologies to improve food safety and packaging life. In‐package cold plasma treatment could revolutionize food storage when combined with other sophisticated technologies such as nanotechnology.

Advances in strawberry postharvest preservation and packaging: A comprehensive review

“…Recently, nonthermal processing methods, such as lowtemperature plasma processing or cold plasma processing, have been gaining popularity for the shelf-life extension of food products. This method involves the use of a highly ionized gas called plasma (Alaguthevar et al, 2024). In this process, a single gas, or a combination of gases, is ionized by using a high-strength electric field, where the strength of the electric field exceeds the ionization potential of the gases (Alaguthevar et al, 2024;Olatunde et al, 2021).…”

“…This method involves the use of a highly ionized gas called plasma (Alaguthevar et al, 2024). In this process, a single gas, or a combination of gases, is ionized by using a high-strength electric field, where the strength of the electric field exceeds the ionization potential of the gases (Alaguthevar et al, 2024;Olatunde et al, 2021). Generally referred to as the fourth state of matter, plasma comprises free electrons, photons, ions, reactive atoms, and neutral molecules in a metastable state with almost zero net charge and maintaining a low temperature, which is roughly around the ambient temperature (Pan et al, 2019).…”