Table 2.
Recent findings summarizing the use of cold plasma in food products based on different fruits and vegetables.
| Food and Food Products | Plasma generating Source | Processing Parameters or Plasma Source |
Microorganism | Major Findings and Remarks | Reference | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frequency | Power | Time | Gas | Voltage | Flow Rate | Pressure | |||||
| Fresh Strawberries and Spinach | Atmospheric cold plasma | – | 900 W | 5, 7, 10, 13, 20, 22, 24 and 27 min | Ozone | 0–100 kV | – | – | E. coli and L. innocua | Continuous treatment was effective against L. innocua inoculated on strawberries, with 3.8 log10 CFU/ml reductions achieved | Ziuzina et al. (2020) |
| Blueberry Juice Quality | Cold Plasma Jet | 1000 Hz | – | 2, 4 and 6 min | Argon (Ar) and Oxygen (O2) | 11 kV | 1.0 L/min | – | Bacillus spp. | The increment of treatment time and O2 concentration significantly promoted an increasing trend of death for Bacillus. Compared with thermal treatment, the content of phenolics was significantly increased by CP treatment, and also CP treatment could better keep the original color of blueberry juice | Hou et al. (2019) |
| Fresh Cut Apple | Cold Plasma | – | 29.6 W | 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 min | Nitrogen (N2), Ar, O2, and Ar-O2 | – | 40 ml/min | 1300 to 1370 mTorr for N2, 850 to 920 mTorr for Ar, 1300 to 1340 mTorr for O2, and 950 to 1000 mTorr for Ar-O2 mixture | Escherichia coli and Listeria innocua | The treatments using Ar, O2, or Ar-O2 mixture for 20 min were the most effective to inactivate E. coli with O2, while the treatment with N2 for 20 min reduced L. innocua the most for (p < 0.05). | Segura-ponce et al. (2018) |
| Tomato | Atmospheric Cold Plasma | 50 Hz | – | 5, 10, 15, and 30 min | – | 15 and 60 kV | – | – | E. coli | The highest log reduction of 6 log CFU mL−1 was achieved in a population of E. coli after 15 min of ACP treatment at 60 kV, which was sustained up to a storage duration of 48 h | Prasad et al. (2017) |
| Apple slice of different types (Pink Lady, Fuji, Red Delicious, Modi) | Cold Plasma | – | 150 W | 30 and 60 min | – | 150 W | – | – | – | A noticeable reduction of superficial browning was observed in all cultivars but not always proportionally to treatment time. Textural parameters were affected by plasma treatments only in Red Delicious apples. | Tappi et al. (2019) |
| Groundnuts | Cold Plasma | 13.56 MHz | 40 and 60 W at | 0 – 30 min | Atmospheric air | 1500 and 1950 V | – | – | A. flavus and A. parasitcus | Results showed complete disintegration of the fungal spore membrane due to electroporation and etching caused by the reactive species of plasma. In 40 W 15 min and 60 W 12 min plasma-treated samples more than 70% and 90% reduction in aflatoxin B1 content was observed | Devi et al. (2017) |
| Bulk Romain Lettuce | Atmospheric Cold Plasma | 0 and 2400 Hz | – | 10 min | Atmospheric air | 42.6 kV | – | – | E. coli O157:H7 | More reduction (1.1 log CFU/g lettuce) was observed at the top layer, but shaking the container increased the uniformity of the inhibition. The treatment did not significantly change the surface morphology, color, respiration rate, or weight loss of the samples, nor did these properties differ significantly according to their location in the bulk stack. | Min et al. (2016) |
| Fresh Cut Melon | Cold Plasma | 12.5 kHz | 19 V | 30 min (15 each side) And 60 min (30 each side) |
Air gas | 15 kV | – | – | – | Qualitative parameters of fresh-cut melon (soluble solid content, dry matter, color, texture) were only weakly affected. Peroxidase and pectin methylesterase activities were slightly inhibited by the treatment up to respectively about 17 and 7%. | Tappi et al. (2016) |
| Blue Berries | Atmospheric Cold Plasma | 50 Hz | – | 2, 5 min | Atmospheric air | 60 and 80 kV | – | – | – | Inhibition of pesticides 75.62% − 80.18% | Sarangapani et al. (2016) |