Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

The Korean Society for Microbiology and Biotechnology (한국미생물·생명공학회)
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Optimization of Atmospheric Cold Plasma Treatment with Different Gases for Reduction of Escherichia coli in Wheat Flour

  • Lee, Jeongmin (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan) ;
  • Park, Seul-Ki (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan) ;
  • Korber, Darren (Department of Food and Bioproduct Sciences, University of Saskatchewan) ;
  • Baik, Oon-Doo (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan)
  • Received : 2022.03.29
  • Accepted : 2022.04.13
  • Published : 2022.06.28
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Abstract

In this study we aimed to derive the response surface models for Escherichia coli reduction in wheat flour using atmospheric cold plasma (ACP) with three types of gas. The jet-type atmospheric cold plasma wand system was used with a 30 W power supply, and three gases (argon, air, and nitrogen) were applied as the treatment gas. The operating parameters for process optimization considered were wheat flour mass (g), treatment time (min), and gas flow rate (L/min). The wheat flour samples were artificially contaminated with E. coli at a concentration of 9.25 ± 0.74 log CFU/g. ACP treatments with argon, air, and nitrogen resulted in 2.66, 4.21, and 5.55 log CFU/g reduction of E. coli, respectively, in wheat flour under optimized conditions. The optimized conditions to reduce E. coli were 0.5 g of the flour mass, 15 min of treatment time, and 0.20 L/min of nitrogen gas flow rate, and the predicted highest reduction level from modeling was 5.63 log CFU/g.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture for their financial support through the Agriculture Development Fund program (ADF #20180293). We also gratefully acknowledge the technical supports from Dr. Shannon Hood-Niefer, Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre.

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