A study of the effect of gliding arc non-thermal plasma on almonds decontamination

Abstract

Escherichia coli is responsible for more than 90% of food poisoning cases and can survive for long periods under adverse conditions and refrigeration temperature. In this study, the effect of gliding arc plasma processing on infected Almond with Escherichia coli was investigated. The optimal conditions during the different applied powers and treatment time were determined. Moreover, the optimum condition was examined on other gram-negative bacteria as Salmonella and Shigella. The viability of almond bacteria was studied using colony-counting analysis and evaluation of active species in plasma was made by the optical emission spectroscopy (OES) method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was carried out to illustrate the morphological change and color measuring analysis was performed to investigate food quality after almond plasma treatment. Finally, it was shown that plasma technique has the capability of food industrialization and potential of method extension.