Recent developments in the use of cold plasma, high hydrostatic pressure, and pulsed electric fields on microorganisms and viruses in seafood

Abstract

Non-thermal processing methods, such as cold plasma (CP), high pressure processing (HPP) and pulsed electric fields (PEF), have been proposed for natural and fresh-like foods to inactivate microorganisms at nearly-ambient or moderate temperature. Since natural, safe, and healthy foods with longer shelf-life are increasingly demanded, these requests are challenging to fulfill by using current thermal processing technologies. Thus, novel preservation technologies based on non-thermal processing methods are required. The aim of this article is to provide recent developments in maintaining seafood safety via CP, HHP, and PEF technologies, as well as their mechanisms of action regarding contamination with food-borne microorganisms. Their application to control parasites, spores and the possibility to eradicate the hazard of SARS-CoV-2 transmission through seafood products are also discussed. CP, HHP, and PEF have been applied to inactivate food-borne microorganisms in the seafood industry. However, the drawbacks for each emerging technology have also been reported. To ensure safety and maintain quality of seafood products, the combination of these processing techniques with natural antimicrobial agents or existing thermal methods may be more applicable in the case of the seafood industry. Further studies are required to examine the effects of these methods on viruses, parasites, and SARS-CoV-2 in seafood.

Keywords:

• Cold plasma
• pulsed electric field
• high hydrostatic pressure
• non-thermal processing
• seafood
• safety
• viruses
• parasites
• spores
• bacteria

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there was no interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author’s objectivity.

Table 1. Summary of recent studies on the effectiveness of Cold Plasma for inactivation of the human norovirus and its surrogates in seafood.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.