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Decontamination of Microbiologically Contaminated Specimen by Direct and Indirect Plasma Treatment
Author(s) -
Schnabel Uta,
Niquet Rijana,
Krohmann Udo,
Winter Jörn,
Schlüter Oliver,
Weltmann KlausDieter,
Ehlbeck Jörg
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
plasma processes and polymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1612-8869
pISSN - 1612-8850
DOI - 10.1002/ppap.201100088
Subject(s) - human decontamination , contamination , endospore , pulp and paper industry , waste management , plasma , environmental science , materials science , food science , chemistry , environmental chemistry , spore , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , engineering , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics
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.