Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

2023

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

First Advisor

Kasiviswanathan Muthukumarappan

Keywords

Cold Plasma, Food processing, Food pathogens, Plasma Activated Water

Abstract

In the food processing industry, Cold Plasma (CP) is an emerging green process with a number of potential applications. Cold plasma has mostly been used to reduce microbial counts in foodstuffs and biological materials as well as in different levels of packaging, particularly in cases where there is thermal sensitivity. Recent studies have demonstrated that CP technology is being developed for use in the food and agriculture industries. The primary focus is on the interactions between reactive species and food-borne microbes to inactivate them. The literature review discusses both proven and potential applications for cold plasma in food processing, as well as the effects of antimicrobial efficiency and the different types of reactor designs. In the next chapter, the effect of ambient cold plasma treatment with varying treatment time and discharge frequency will be investigated, to determine its ability to inactivate Escherichia coli K-12, Salmonella Cerro, Salmonella Dublin, and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli cells on the beef surface. Furthermore, these studies show that cold plasma can be used for the surface decontamination of high moisture beef slices and for the effective use of cold plasma activated water using two types of reactors. A novel plasma leap water reactor was investigated in the next chapter for its antimicrobial efficacy against Escherichia coli, one of the most common bacteria. A range of five different discharge frequencies between 500 Hz and 1500 Hz and six different treatment times between 2 seconds and 60 seconds was tested in distilled water in order to test the efficacy of the water reactor. The results suggest that all bacteria (6 log) are completely inactivated within 5 seconds of being treated with PAW generated with plasma leap water reactors. Cold plasma is an eco-friendly alternative to conventional methods of food preservation and is used in many applications.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Low temperature plasmas.
Food industry and trade.
Anti-infective agents.
Food -- Preservation.
Microorganisms.

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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Rights Statement

In Copyright