A review on cold plasma microbial decontamination mechanism, its effect on food quality and its generation

Nowadays the need for a technology with maximum microbial safety without affecting the characteristics like the nutritional, organoleptic, and sensory aspects of food products, has been increasing enormously due to the quality loss caused by thermal technologies. In recent years plasma has gained attention for its potency as a decontamination agent and nutritional characteristics maintenance. Plasma is an innovating and emerging, biocompatible technology presenting many functional features and meets the needs of the food industry to produce a product with low health risk. Although many articles have focused on plasma disinfectant properties, the following review summarizes the mechanisms of plasma decontamination as well as its effects on various microorganisms, how plasma is generated, and its effect on the nutritional properties of food is brought products.