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Essential Oil Vapors Assisted Plasma for Rapid, Enhanced Sanitization of Food-Associated Pathogenic Bacteria
Antimicrobial treatment procedures are often applied during produce post-harvest processing and storage as a complementary measure to reduce the potential risk of foodborne illness. Herein, we investigate the feasibility and efficacy of utilizing essential oil vapor–assisted plasma treatments to san...
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Published in: | Food and bioprocess technology 2024-06, Vol.17 (6), p.1507-1524 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Antimicrobial treatment procedures are often applied during produce post-harvest processing and storage as a complementary measure to reduce the potential risk of foodborne illness. Herein, we investigate the feasibility and efficacy of utilizing essential oil vapor–assisted plasma treatments to sanitize lettuce, spinach, and tomatoes. These fresh produce items are often associated with foodborne illnesses. Additionally, potatoes were chosen to introduce topography diversity into the study. It was observed that the exposure times of bacteria-inoculated tomatoes, to essential oil vapor–assisted plasma, strongly affected bacterial inactivation of
Salmonella enterica
subsp.
Enterica serovar typhimurium lilleengen type
(LT) 2 (
Salmonella typhimurium
LT2), a gram-negative bacterium. Combining essential oil vapors with atmospheric plasma for 100 s resulted in a significant increase in logarithmic scale reductions compared to atmospheric plasma alone. For
Salmonella
, the logarithmic scale reduction in viable bacteria increased from 0.9 ± 0.38 to 1.7 ± 0.27 log
10
CFU/cm
2
when the treatment atmosphere was changed from atmospheric plasma to essential oil vapor–assisted plasma. In
Listeria innocua
, a surrogate for
L. monocytogenes
, gram-positive bacteria, logarithmic scale reduction increased from 1.5 ± 0.22 to 2.5 ± 0.20 log
10
CFU/cm
2
. When an optimal treatment time of 100 s was used to treat the other vegetable substrates using essential oil vapor–assisted atmospheric plasma, there was no discernible effect of variations in the produce surface roughness and hydrophilicity on the bactericidal efficacy against
Salmonella
and
Listeria.
Overall, we conclude that the use of essential oil vapor–assisted plasma is a viable and rapid means of controlling contamination outbreaks. |
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ISSN: | 1935-5130 1935-5149 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s11947-023-03203-0 |