Impact of Cold Plasma and Thermal Treatment on the Storage Stability and Shelf-Life of Pineapple Juice: A Comprehensive Postharvest Quality Assessment

The primary concern regarding the pineapple juice processing industry is its insufficient stability. The goal of this investigation is to evaluate the storage stability and shelf life of cold plasma (CP) and thermally treated pineapple juice samples (S1, untreated; S2, optimized plasma-treated; S3, extreme plasma-treated; S4, thermally-treated) packed in glass (GL) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles at 5, 15, and 25°C. The color parameters increased with time and storage temperature. However, the bioactive substances decreased during storage for all the samples. Moreover, all the samples at elevated temperatures showed a higher degradation rate for bioactive compounds and color parameters. The changes in color parameter values across all samples showed zero-order kinetics, while the bioactive compounds followed a 1^st-order kinetics. The application of various packing materials and storage temperatures had a significant impact (p < 0.05) on the microbiological, enzyme inactivation, and biochemical characteristics of the samples. However, there was an insignificant effect (p > 0.05) on the pH, acidity, and soluble solids. CP and thermally-treated samples reduced natural microbiota below the detection limit (<1-log CFU/mL). The sensory quality of S2, S3, and S4 samples remained above the acceptable limit (OA>5) for 120 d at 5 ℃. The shelf-life of the optimized CP-treated juice sample packed in GL bottles was 90, 50, and 25 days at 5, 15, and 25°C, respectively, based on AA≥20 mg/100 mL, OA≥5, ΔE*≤12, and microbial count≤6-log CFU/mL. In conclusion, CP is an effective non-thermal method that may extend the shelf life of pineapple juice packed in GL bottles by up to 90 days in refrigerated conditions (5 °C).