Abstract
Efficient methods to achieve the safe decontamination of agricultural products are needed. Here, we investigated the decontamination of citrus fruits to test the antifungal potential of a novel non-thermal gas plasma apparatus, termed a roller conveyer plasma instrument. This instrument generates an atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (APDBP) plasma on a set of rollers. Penicillium venetum was spotted onto the surface of the fruit or pericarps, as well as an aluminium plate to act as a control, before performing the plasma treatment. The results showed that viable cell number of P. venetum decreased with a decimal reduction time (D value or estimated treatment time required to reduce viable cell number by 90%) of 0.967 min on the aluminium plate, 2.90 min and 1.88 min on the pericarps of ‘Kiyomi’ (Citrus unshiu × C. sinensis) and ‘Kawano-natsudaidai’ (C. natsudaidai) respectively, and 2.42 min on the surface of ‘Unshu-mikan’ (C. unshiu). These findings confirmed a fungicidal effect of the plasma not only on an abiotic surface (aluminium plate) but also on a biotic surface (citrus fruit). Further development of the instrument by combining sorting systems with the plasma device promises an efficient means of disinfecting citrus fruits during food processing.
Highlights
Measures to control plant pathogens in primary food production are important for food quality management (Strange and Scott 2005)
Decrease in the viable cell number of P. venetum spotted onto an aluminium plate after atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (APDBD) treatment We investigated the changes in the viable cell number after APDBD treatment of P. venetum using a roller conveyor plasma instrument
Decrease in the viable cell number of P. venetum spotted onto the surface of citrus fruits after APDBD treatment we examined whether the roller conveyer plasma instrument was effective at disinfecting the surface of citrus fruits contaminated with fungus
Summary
Measures to control plant pathogens in primary food production are important for food quality management (Strange and Scott 2005). We investigated the disinfection efficiency of the roller conveyer plasma instrument using citrus fruits contaminated with a fungus. The results of viable cell numbers were 1.73 × 107 ± 0.20 × 107 CFU/ml at 0 min, but significantly decreased to 1.17 × 106 ± 0.65 × 106 CFU/ml at 1 min and 1.50 × 105 ± 0.23 × 105 CFU/ml at 2 min treatment time (Fig. 1).
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