Reframing seafood quality and safety through synergistic cold plasma strategies

Seafood products are highly nutritious but extremely perishable due to their high water activity, near-neutral pH, polyunsaturated fatty acid content, endogenous enzymes, and spoilage/pathogenic microbiota. Conventional preservation methods such as chilling, freezing, thermal processing, chemical preservatives, and packaging remain essential, but they may cause quality loss, provide limited microbial control, or depend strongly on cold-chain integrity. Cold plasma (CP) has emerged as a promising non-thermal technology for seafood decontamination because plasma-generated reactive species can damage microbial membranes, proteins, enzymes, and nucleic acids under near-ambient temperature conditions. However, standalone CP is limited by low penetration depth, surface-dependent efficacy, microbial recovery, process variability, and possible oxidative effects on seafood lipids and proteins. This review critically evaluates CP for seafood preservation, with emphasis on synergistic and hurdle-based strategies. CP combinations are functionally classified as oxidation-mitigating, microbial inactivation-enhancing, and shelf-life/stability-enhancing approaches. Antioxidants, plant extracts, edible coatings, modified atmosphere packaging, plasma-activated water, UV-based treatments, pulsed electric fields, and other non-thermal technologies can complement CP by reducing oxidative deterioration, increasing microbial susceptibility, limiting post-treatment regrowth, and improving storage stability. Future progress requires product-specific optimization, challenge testing, standardized reporting, pilot-scale validation, regulatory evaluation, and consumer acceptance studies. CP-based hurdle strategies offer a promising framework for improving seafood safety and shelf life while preserving sensory and nutritional quality.