Document Type

Article

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

Fluids and plasma physics, Chemical process engineering, Food and beverages, 4. AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES

Publication Details

In Print Accepted Manuscript for Journal of Food Engineering. Vol. 125, March 2014, Pgs. 131-138. Available online 28 October 2013.

Abstract

The ability to generate low temperature plasma at atmospheric pressure offers new opportunities to decontaminate biological materials, including fresh foods. In this study, strawberries were treated with atmospheric cold plasma (ACP), generated with a 60 kV dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) pulsed at 50 Hz, across a 40 mm electrode gap, generated inside a sealed package containing ambient air (42% relative humidity). The current-voltage characteristics revealed that the plasma operated in the filamentary regime. The background microflora (aerobic mesophillic bacteria, yeast and mould) of strawberries treated for 5 min was reduced by 2 log 10 within 24 h of post-ACP treatment. The respiration rate of ACP treated produce, measured by the closed system approach, showed no significant increase. The effect of ACP on strawberry colour and firmness was insignificant.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2013.10.023

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