Atmospheric Pressure Cold Plasma Application for Food Safety

Abstract

Our Plasma Engineering Research Lab (PERL) has been developing a variety of non-thermal plasma discharges for a range of applications. One of our recent development is a portable table-top atmospheric pressure non-thermal air plasma system using a resistive barrier discharge configuration that has been designed and developed for bacterial decontamination, pasteurization and sterilization of a range of items in a very simple one-touch operation. In this work, we will present the results of inactivation efficacies of bacteria that causes food borne illnesses. The portable tabletop atmospheric pressure non-thermal air plasma system is designed to inactivate bacteria in food of varied surface texture such as chicken, egg, seafood, vegetables and fruits. The portable table-top atmospheric pressure non-thermal air plasma system is designed to function at standard 50–60 Hz low frequency AC power input and in the ambient air. The core resistive barrier plasma setup used in this system is well characterized by our group. Ozone, and nitric oxides (NO) were observed to be the predominant long lived reactive species produced by the portable table-top atmospheric pressure non-thermal air plasma system. The results of the bacterial inactivation on variety of food surfaces will be presented in detail.