Decontamination of Microbiologically Contaminated Specimen by Direct and Indirect Plasma Treatment

Abstract Gentle sanitation of fresh fruits and vegetables is highly demanded. Currently used methods lead to losses in product amounts and quality. Furthermore, these methods go along with high costs and chemical residues. One reason for such problems is microbial contamination. Due to the fact that conventional decontamination processes are not suitable for preservation of fresh produce, alternatives such as plasma technology can be helpful. Three different artificial specimen and seeds of Brassica napus were contaminated with endospores of Bacillus atrophaeus and afterwards plasma treated directly with DBD plasma and indirectly with microwave plasma processed air. After a treatment time of 15 minutes reduction rates between 0.5 and 5.2 log were achieved. The viability of seeds was not affected. The advantages of plasma and promising results offer a wide range of possible uses in food industry. magnified image