Abstract
The potentiality of corona discharge plasma jet (CDPJ) for disinfection of food packaging materials, including glass, polyethylene, polypropylene, nylon and paper foil, was evaluated. CDPJ was generated using a high voltage (20 kV) pulsed DC power source, at 1.5 A current and 58 kHz frequency. The separation distance between plasma electrode and sample plate during the treatment was 25 mm. Upon treating food pathogens-loaded packaging materials by the plasma, 4.5–5.0 log/cm2 reductions (99.999%) in viable cell counts of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Staphylococcus aureus were observed in 120 s. Another tested pathogen Salmonella Typhimurium was inactivated by 3.0 log/cm2 units. The patterns of inactivation of pathogens are fitted well to Weibull tail model. Compared to untreated controls, the CDPJ-treated packaging materials exhibited insignificant (p > 0.05) changes in the optical characteristics, tensile strengths, surface temperatures and strain-induced deformation. Therefore, the most common food packaging materials harboring bacterial pathogens could be disinfected by the CDPJ without compromising physicomechanical properties of materials. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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