Plasma-Activated Water for Food Safety and Quality: A Review of Recent Developments

Abstract

Plasma-activated water (PAW) has received a lot of attention lately because of its antibacterial efficacy and eco-friendly nature. Compared to traditional disinfectants, this novel and intriguing option has a high disinfectant capacity while causing little to no modifications to the foodstuffs. Until now, PAW has successfully demonstrated its effectiveness against a broad range of microorganisms on a wide variety of food items. Though the efficacy of PAW in microbial reduction has been extensively reviewed, a relatively significant issue of food quality has been largely overlooked. This review aims to summarize the current studies on the physicochemical characteristics and antimicrobial potential of PAW, with an in-depth focus on food quality and safety. According to recent studies, PAW can be a potential microbial disinfectant that extends the shelf life of various food products, such as meat and fish products, fruits and vegetables, cereal products, etc. However, the efficacy varies with treatment conditions and the food ingredients applied. There is a mixed opinion about the effect of PAW on food quality. Based on the available literature, it can be concluded that there has been no substantial change in the biochemical properties of most of the tested food products. However, some fruits and vegetables had a higher value for the enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) after PAW treatment, while only a few demonstrated a decrease in the Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) value. Sensory properties also showed no significant difference, with some exceptions in meat and fish products.

Using TRIS-Buffered Plasma-Activated Water to Reduce Pathogenic Microorganisms on Poultry Carcasses with Evaluation of Physicochemical and Sensory Parameters

“…Other authors who treated for example, chicken skin or muscle with PAW also found unchanged sensory characteristics [17] or deterioration [25]. According to Rahman et al [13], the reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) contained in PAW can influence the biochemical and sensory properties of a food either positively or negatively. With the current settings of our Tb-PAW, there is no evidence of a negative impact on the sensory properties of the products after spraying.…”

“…Many scientists have already tried various decontamination strategies to reduce the bacterial load of carcasses and achieve a simultaneous improvement in food shelf life, such Foods 2023, 12, 1113 2 of 15 as using chemicals (ethyl-Nα-lauroyl-L-arginate hypochloride, peracetic acid, or chlorinebased products), UV-C radiation, or different temperature regimes [9][10][11][12]. Unfortunately, these applications often cause negative effects on the products, such as damage to texture, alteration of taste, or formation of carcinogens [13]. Only the use of potable water to remove surface contamination on poultry meat is currently permitted due to European Regulation (EC) No.…”

“…In recent years, the use of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) to reduce a variety of microorganisms on meat and meat products has become increasingly important [15]. However, Rahman et al [13] described that the design of the plasma devices (mainly atmospheric pressure plasma jet or dielectric barrier discharge) results in decontamination of only a part and not the whole food surface, especially for larger products. In addition, they found that the microorganisms are not affected by the plasma in some cases due to the shielding effect of the surface structure and texture of skin or meat.…”

Effects of heating on the antibacterial efficacy and physicochemical properties of plasma-activated water

“…PAW exhibits excellent antimicrobial activity against various bacteria, yeast, mold, and viruses (Thirumdas et al, 2018). Because of its antibacterial efficacy and eco-friendly nature, PAW has been successfully applied to improve the microbial safety and quality of various food products, such as fruits, vegetables, meat and fish products, edible mushrooms, fish, eggs, and cereal products (Liao et al, 2019;Rahman et al, 2022;Xiang et al, 2019b). It has been reported that the antibacterial efficacy of PAW is influenced by the plasma discharge type, working gas, plasma activation time, and treatment time (Shaw et al, 2018;Xiang et al, 2018;Xu et al, 2016).…”

Effect of plasma-activated water and buffer solution combined with ultrasound on fungicide degradation and quality of cherry tomato during storage

“…Also, several biochemical reactions are triggered at the gas–liquid interface, and these reactive species are transferred to the liquids for producing broad-spectrum sanitizers. Literature suggests that PAL can inactivate many microorganisms and is exceptionally powerful in removing toxins from agricultural products without altering the taste, aroma, nutritional quality, physical attributes, and textural properties [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] .…”