Influence of plasma-treated air on surface microbial communities on freshly harvested lettuce

Winter, Hauke; Wagner, Robert; Yao, Yijiao; Ehlbeck, Jörg; Schnabel, Uta

doi:10.1016/j.crfs.2023.100649

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…However, this regrowth was not as strong as that detected for the Grampositive bacteria. Another study with plasma gas as the antimicrobial sanitation method showed comparable reduction dynamics [52,53]. Nevertheless, the regrowth was notable and should not be neglected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Deep Impact: Shifts of Native Cultivable Microbial Communities on Fresh Lettuce after Treatment with Plasma-Treated Water

Winter,

Wagner,

Ehlbeck

et al. 2024

Foods

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Foods consumed raw, such as lettuce, can host food-borne human-pathogenic bacteria. In the worst-case, these diseases cause to death. To limit illness and industrial losses, one innovative sanitation method is non-thermal plasma, which offers an extremely efficient reduction of living microbial biomass. Unfortunately, the total viable count (TVC), one of the most common methods for quantifying antimicrobial effects, provides no detailed insights into the composition of the surviving microbial community after treatment. To address this information gap, different special agars were used to investigate the reduction efficiency of plasma-treated water (PTW) on different native cultivable microorganisms. All tested cultivable microbial groups were reduced using PTW. Gram-negative bacteria showed a reduction of 3.81 log10, and Gram-positive bacteria showed a reduction of 3.49 log10. Fungi were reduced by 3.89 log10. These results were further validated using a live/dead assay. MALDI-ToF (matrix-assisted laser-desorption-ionization time-of-flight)-based determination was used for a diversified overview. The results demonstrated that Gram-negative bacteria were strongly reduced. Interestingly, Gram-positive bacteria and fungi were reduced by nearly equal amounts, but could still recover from PTW treatment. MALDI-ToF mainly identified Pseudomonas spp. and groups of Bacillus on the tested lettuce. These results indicate that the PTW treatment could efficiently achieve a ubiquitous, spectrum-wide reduction of microbial life.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%