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Abstract: The atmospheric cold plasma it is a non-thermal processing method. This technique becomes a subject of high interest for a wide variety of technologies including the food industry. The atmospheric cold plasma it is proposed for decontamination of fmits and vegetables, especially, without changes in sensory attributes. This paper summarizes some relevant aspects of atmospheric cold plasma including generation, microbial inactivation mechanism and plasma applications in food industry. Although some aspects of antimicrobial mechanisms were presented here, more research should be done to clarify the antimicrobial mechanisms, in addition to confirm that no harmful by-products are generated by this technology.
Keywords: food, microbial inactivation, non-thermal processing.
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Introduction
The foods may be contaminated by different microorganisms or can undergo deterioration from natural food enzymes. The pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms are problematic in the food industry due to their significant public health risks and economic impact (Stoica et al., 2011; Afshari and Hosseini, 2014). Therefore, in the food industry, the control of undesirable microorganisms is essential and decisive (Stoica et al., 2011). There are a lot of methods to destroy these microorganisms, such as: thermal technologies, e.g. sterilization, pasteurization, ohmic heating, etc. (Afshari and Hosseini, 2014) and non-thermal technologies, e.g. high hydrostatic pressure, pulsed electric fields, high voltage arc discharge (Stoica et al., 2011; Stoica et al., 2013; Afshari and Hosseini, 2014). On the other hand, the thermal technologies lead to unwanted changes in the foods' sensory attributes (by overheating) or to low nutritional value of the food products (Fernández et al., 2012; Stoica et al., 2013; Afshari and Hosseini, 2014), while the non-thermal technologies are often technically difficult to apply into production, expensive and require specialized equipment and trained personnel (Garcia-Gonzalez et al., 2007; Afshari and Hosseini, 2014; Misra et al., 2014b). ACP: atmospheric cold plasma, a non- thermal plasma technology, is proposed as a potential alternative to traditional methods for decontamination of foods (Bárdos and Baránková, 2010; Naïtali et al., 2010; Niemira, 2012; Afshari and Hosseini, 2014; Ziuzina et al., 2014). This technology does not require extreme process conditions and offers great opportunities for food product preservation (Fernández et al., 2012; Rod et al., 2012; Stoica et al., 2013), where the heat is not desirable for it (Afshari...