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Atmospheric plasma inactivation of biofilm-forming bacteria for food safety control
journal contribution
posted on 2008-07-14, 11:35 authored by Mieke Vleugels, Gilbert Shama, Xu-Tao Deng, Elizabeth Greenacre, Tim Brocklehurst, Michael G. KongThe ability of atmospheric pressure glow discharges
(APGD) to inactivate microorganisms has been demonstrated in a
number of previous studies. However, most of this work has been
performed using microorganisms that do not form biofilms and
with the microorganisms supported on abiotic surfaces that discourage
cell growth. When microorganisms attach to the surface
of a food, they can extract nutrients from the food and proliferate
at the surface. Often this growth takes the form of biofilms which
comprise three-dimensional (3-D) networks of polysaccharides
that attach microorganisms to surfaces and serve to protect them
from external stresses; fresh foods, such as salad crops, frequently
harbor biofilms. We believe that the use of APGD offers a potential
for inactivating microorganisms on the surface of fresh
foods that cannot be readily treated by other methods without
inducing unacceptable changes to these foods. As a first step
toward a full evaluation of the viability of the APGD technology
for food safety control, we consider in this paper two key issues,
namely: 1) whether atmospheric glow discharges can inactivate
biofilm-forming microorganisms and 2) whether plasma treatment
causes significant discoloration to food surfaces. Using the
biofilm-forming bacterium Pantoea agglomerans and bell peppers
(Capsicum annuum) as a typical example of plant tissue, we show
that atmospheric He-O2 plasmas can be effective inactivation
agents without causing unacceptable levels of discoloration to the
peppers, and that furthermore they are superior to the use of
low-pressure ultraviolet sources.
History
School
- Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering
Citation
VLEUGELA, M. ... et al, 2005. Atmospheric plasma inactivation of biofilm-forming bacteria for food safety control. IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, 33(2), pp. 824-828Publisher
© IEEEPublication date
2005Notes
This article was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science [© IEEE] and is also available at: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/servlet/opac?punumber=27 Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.ISSN
0093-3813Language
- en