Recent updates and perspectives of plasma in food processing: a review

Figures & data

Table 1. PAW-based microbial decontamination of numerous key foods.

Treated food	Equipment’s	Microorganism concern	Treatment duration	Classification	Microbiological reduction	References
Sprout mung bean	Gliding arc discharge based APPJ	Aerobic bacteria	Ten, twenty, and thirty minutes	Bacteria	2.32 log CFU per gram	Xiang et al. (2019)
Gourd with spines	Plasma having nozzle	Enterobacter aerogenes	Three minutes	Gram-negative bacteria	1.70 log Colony-forming units per surface	Joshi et al. (2018)
Fresh cut pear	Aaray of cold microplasma jets based on hollow fiber’s	Entire bacterial population	5 minutes, 12 days of storage	Bacteria	0.65 log colony forming unit per gram	Chen et al. (2019)
apple, freshly sliced	Cold microplasma jet array based on hollow fibers	Aerobic bacteria	5 minutes, 12 days period of storage	Bacteria	1.05 log Colony-forming unit per gram	Liu et al. (2020)
Strawberry		Staphylococcus aureus	five, ten, and fifteen minutes	Gram positive bacteria	between 1.7 and 3.4 log Colony forming unit per gram	Ma et al. (2015)
Beef, freshly sliced	Micro-plasma array	Bacteria in total	24 hours	Bacteria	3.1 log Colony forming units per gram	Zhao et al. (2018)
Celery, freshly chopped		Listeria monocytogenes	5 minutes, 20 minutes, 40 minutes, and 60 minutes	Gram positive bacteria	0.57 log Colony forming unit per gram	Berardinelli et al. (2016)
Rice from Korea		Aerobes in total	40 minutes	Gram negative bacteria	∼2.0 log colony forming units per gram	Han et al. (2020)
Breast of chicken	Plasma jet with gliding arc discharge	Pseudomonas deceptionensis	12 minutes	Gram negative bacteria	1.05 log colony forming units per gram	Kang et al. (2019)
Mushroom	Plasma arc	Bacteria in total	20 minutes	Bacteria	0.4 log Colony forming units per gram	Gavahian and Khaneghah (2019)
Beef	Plasma jet discharge	Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis	20 seconds	Gram negative bacteria	1.24 to 3.52 log Colony forming units per gram	Qian et al. (2019)
Shrimps	DBD	Total number of viable	Nine days	Fungi	2.1 log Colony forming unit per gram	Liao et al. (2018)
Grapes	APPJ	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	30 minutes	Fungi	0.39 log10 Colony forming unit per gram	Xiang et al. (2020)

Table 2. The impacts of non-thermal plasma on food functional components.

Food commodity	NTP type	Matrix	Bioactive compounds	Treatment conditions	Observations	References
Juice from chokeberries	Plasma in the cold atmospheric gas phase	Juice	Flavanols, polyphenols, and hydroxycinnamic acids	3- and 5-minute timers; 4 W; 25 kHz; argon gas; 3, 5, and 7 cm3 sample volume	Increased levels of hydroxycinnamic acids. Anthocyanins are being lost due to an increase in flavonols. Anthocyanin extraction time is reduced. Increase in neochlorogenic acid concentration.	Kovaˇcevi´c et al. (2016a)
Pomegranate juice	Cold atmospheric gas phase plasma	Juice	Phenolic compounds	Argon gas; 3, 5, and 7 minutes; 25 kHz; 4 W; 3, 4, and 5 cm3 sample volume; flow rates of 0.75, 1.25, and 1.25 dm3/min.	Increased levels of ellagic acid, ferulic acid, chlorogenic acid, catechin, and punicalagin 1. Reduced levels of caffeic acid, protocatechuic acid, and punicalagin 2.	Herceg et al. (2016)
Blueberry	Atmospheric cold plasm	Fruit	Anthocyanin	Air as a gas; 0 to 2 and 5 minutes; 60 and 80 kV; 50 Hz	TFC and TPC levels significantly increased after 1 minute of plasma exposure. With increased treatment time, there is a significant reduction in anthocyanin.	Sarangapani et al. (2017)
orange, Sour cherry, tomato and apple juices	Atmospheric cold plasma	Juice	Total Phenolics content	30 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds, and 120 seconds; 650 W; 3000 L/h gas flow rate; 25 kHz	After 120 seconds, there was an increase in TPC in all treated juices.	Dasan and Boyaci (2018)
Blueberries	Atmospheric cold plasma	Fruit	Anthocyanin	549 W; 47 kHz; 7.5 cm electrode distance; 113.27 L/min flow rate; air; 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 120 s;	After 90 seconds, there is a significant decrease in TAC.	Lacombe et al. (2015)

Figure 1. Potential applications of plasma and PAW in agriculture and food.

Figure 2. The effects of plasma on food quality.