Cold Plasma Technology Impact on Microorganisms Inactivation in Foods: A Systematic Review

Cold plasma is a high-end technology that offers favorable opportunities for microorganism inactivation in contaminated food. This review aimed to evaluate the efficacy of cold plasma treatment to reduce different pathogen and spoilage microorganisms in various foods. In addition, the effect of influential factors related to plasma processing, including microorganism type, gas type, treatment time, and treatment voltage, on the reduction rate of microorganisms was assessed using principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. The extracted data showed that most researcher investigated plasma efficiency on the inactivation of Escherichia coli in different food samples. Also in most studies the plasma was generated using air as plasma gas. The microorganism inactivation rate obtained by cold plasma treatments was raging from -0.90 to 8.00 log CFU. The plasma voltage (0.7) and plasma gas (0.66) had a significant correlation with principal component 1 and had a negative correlation coefficient with treatment time (-0.76). The reduction rate (0.68) and microorganism (0.7) were positively correlated with principal components 2. The findings indicated that cold plasma has an excellent potential to decontaminate hazardous organisms in different food. Besides, plasma treatment conditions should be considered to optimize the effective inactivation rates. The reduction rate of microorganisms in different foods is strongly influenced by microbial factors and technical plasma performance factors. Regarding the crucial damage to microorganism cell components using plasma, this novel technology could efficiently apply for preservation and also promote the shelf life of food products.