SEMINAR ON,

APPLICATION OF COLD
PLASMA IN FOOD
INDUSTRY….
~KUNIKA MAHAJAN
FOOD TECH (3 YR)
PLASMA?
Plasma, a quasi-neutral gas, is considered to be the fourth
state of matter, following the more familiar states of solid,
liquid & gas and constitutes more than 99% matter of the
universe .
It is more or less an electrified gas with a chemically reactive media that
consists of a large number of different species such as electrons, positive
and negative ions, free radicals, gas atoms and molecules .
 It can exist over an extremely wide range of temperature
and pressure.
The name was provided by the New York chemist Irving
Langmuir (1881– 1957).

 plasmas can be distinguished into two

main groups i.e., the high temperature
or fusion plasmas and the so called low
temperatures or gas discharges(LTE).
High temperature plasma implies that all species (electrons, ions and neutral
species) are in a thermal equilibrium state.

Low temperature plasma is further subdivided into thermal plasma, also called
quasi-equilibrium plasma, which is in a local thermal equilibrium (LTE) state, and
non thermal plasma (NTP), also called non-equilibrium plasma or cold plasma.

THERMAL PLASMA

LOW TEMP
PLASMA NON THERMAL PLASMA(COLD PLASMA)
COLD PLASMAS
 Cold plasmas refer to the plasmas where most of the coupled electrical
energy is primarily channeled to the electron component of the plasma,
thereby producing energetic electrons instead of heating the entire gas
stream; while the plasma ions and neutral components remain at or near
room temperature.
 Because the ions and the neutrals remain relatively cold, this
characteristic provides the possibility of using cold plasmas for low
temperature plasma chemistry and for the treatment of heat sensitive
materials including polymers and biological tissues.
 The remarkable characteristic features of cold plasma that include a
strong thermodynamic non- equilibrium nature, low gas temperature,
presence of reactive chemical species and high selectivity offer a
tremendous potential to utilize these cold plasma sources in a wide range of
applications.
HOW THESE PLASMAS ARE INTRODUCED?

TECHNOLOGIES INVOLOVED :
 Corona discharge

 Atmospheric pressure plasma jet

 Microhollow cathode discharge

 Dielectric barrier discharge

APPLICATIONS OF COLD PLASMA.

 In general cold plasma has a wide range of applications

including:
 remediations of gaseous pollutants
 treatment of volatile organic compounds
 greenhouse gas abatement
 Lasers dislapy panel etc.

However from a food packaging perspective,cold plasma is

classically focused on surface modifications
APPLICATIONS OF COLD PLASMA IN FOOD
INDUSTRY.

THERE ARE NO. OF COLD PLASMA TREATMENTS

USED IN PACKAGING MATERIAL SURFACES
INCLUDING:
 surface pretreatments for cleaning ,activation or passivation.
 Surface functionalization for introducing specific functional
groups on the film surface
 Surface deposition for introducing selected coating
materials on the film surface
 Surface etching for creating specific roughness and pattern
 Surface sterilization
SURFACE ACTIVATION AND FUNCTIONALIZATION BY PLASMA

~significantly improves wettability of the surface.

~ Improved surface wettability is necessary for the use

of ecologically beneficial water based paints
Advantages this plasma treatment did?

# adjustable surface energy

# tunable adhesiveness
# tunable hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity
# creation of anti-mist surfaces
# use of water-based paint and ink possible
ADHESION

Adhesion has several potential areas of

applications enumerated as follows:
 Deposition of bio active or antimicrobial compounds in edible and active
packaging systems to achieve particular benefits such as shelf life
extension or nutritional quality enhancement
 Deposition of antifouling layer on food processing surfaces to avoid
biofilm formation
IN-PACKAGE DECONTAMINATION

This is one of the most novel applications of cold plasma in the

food industry.the idea is to generate plasma species in
prepackaged food products.
 In this application the reactive species will carry out the package

sterilization and food decontamination

 In this type of processing the packaging material will also act as

the dielectric barrier

 This allows to effectively control spoilage organisms

 Extend the microbial shelf life by approximately 6 days under

refrigerated storage
 A viable alternative to chemical disinfection of poultry surfaces
EFFECTS OF COLD PLASMA ON FOOD
EFFECTS OF COLD PLASMA ON ENZYMES
IN FOOD
ADVANTAGES OF COLD
PLASMA
 CP requires short process times
 CP is readily adaptable to a number of food-
processing environments
 CP is a dry process, requiring very small amounts
of energy
 The reactive gases revert back to the original gas
within a relatively short amount of time
CONCLUSIONS
 Cold plasma is a novel, non-thermal technology
which has shown good potential for food
decontamination. However, most of the research is
largely focused on microbial inactivation studies,
with limited emphasis on food quality. Cold plasma
processing has been shown to affect the quality
attributes of the food product during treatment as
well in storage.
THANKYO
U