Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

In-Package Atmospheric Pressure Cold Plasma Treatment Of Strawberries, N. Misra, Paula Bourke, Patrick Cullen, Sonal Patil

Articles

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. …