Novel nonthermal inactivation technologies have been increasingly popular over the traditional thermal food processing methods due to their capacity in maintaining microbial safety and other quality parameters. Plasma-activated water (PAW) is a cutting-edge technology developed around a decade ago, and it has attracted considerable attention as a potential washing disinfectant. This review aims to offer an overview of the fundamentals and potential applications of PAW in the agri-food sector. A detailed description of the interactions between plasma and water can help to have a better understanding of PAW, hence the physicochemical properties of PAW are discussed. Further, this review elucidates the complex inactivation mechanisms of PAW, including oxidative stress and physical effect. In particular, the influencing factors on inactivation efficacy of PAW, including processing factors, characteristics of microorganisms, and background environment of water are extensively described. Finally, the potential applications of PAW in the food industry, such as surface decontamination for various food products, including fruits and vegetables, meat and seafood, and also the treatment on quality parameters are presented. Apart from decontamination, the applications of PAW for seed germination and plant growth, as well as meat curing are also summarized. In the end, the challenges and limitations of PAW for scale-up implementation, and future research efforts are also discussed. This review demonstrates that PAW has the potential to be successfully used in the food industry.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1541-4337.12644

Plasma-activated water: Physicochemical properties, microbial inactivation mechanisms, factors influencing antimicrobial effectiveness, and applications in the food industry.

In recent years, cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAPP) technology has received substantial attention due to its valuable properties including operational simplicity, low running cost, and environmental friendliness. Several different gases (air, nitrogen, helium, argon) and techniques (corona discharge, dielectric barrier discharge, plasma jet) can be used to generate plasma at atmospheric pressure and low temperature. Plasma treatment is routinely used in materials science to modify the surface properties (e.g., wettability, chemical composition, adhesion) of a wide range of materials (e.g., polymers, textiles, metals, glasses). Moreover, CAPP seems to be a powerful tool for the inactivation of various pathogens (e.g., bacteria, fungi, viruses) in the food industry (e.g., food and packing material decontamination, shelf life extension), agriculture (e.g., disinfection of seeds, fertilizer, water, soil) and medicine (e.g., sterilization of medical equipment, implants). Plasma medicine also holds great promise for direct therapeutic treatments in dentistry (tooth bleaching), dermatology (atopic eczema, wound healing) and oncology (melanoma, glioblastoma). Overall, CAPP technology is an innovative, powerful and effective tool offering a broad application potential. However, its limitations and negative impacts need to be determined in order to receive regulatory approval and consumer acceptance.

Applications of Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Technology in Medicine, Agriculture and Food Industry

▶ Presents original research and critical reviews regarding improvement and evaluation of the nutritional quality of plant foods for humans ▶ Coverage includes biotechnology; food science and technology; functional, nutraceutical or pharma foods; and other topics ▶ Editor-in-Chief: O. Paredes-Lopez, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Unidad Irapuato, Mexico ▶ 95% of authors who answered a survey reported that they would definitely publish or probably publish in the journal again

Plant Foods for Human Nutrition.

Impacts of cold plasma treatment on physicochemical, functional, bioactive, textural, and sensory attributes of food: A comprehensive review

Effects of dielectric barrier discharge cold plasma treatments on degradation of anilazine fungicide and quality of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) juice

Murtaza Ali

Papers

Effects of dielectric barrier discharge cold plasma treatments on degradation of anilazine fungicide and quality of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) juice

Effect of plasma activated water and buffer solution on fungicide degradation from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit.

Effects of combined treatment of plasma activated liquid and ultrasound for degradation of chlorothalonil fungicide residues in tomato.

Effect of Drying Techniques and Storage on Mulberry (Morus alba) Quality

Mineral composition and sensory evaluation of buckwheat cookies supplemented with wheat flour