Background

Dry food products are often highly contaminated, and dry stress-resistant microorganisms, such as certain types of Salmonella and bacterial spores, can be still viable and multiply if the product is incorporated into high moisture food products or rehydrated. Traditional technologies for the decontamination of these products have certain limitations and drawbacks, such as alterations of product quality, environmental impacts, carcinogenic potential and/or lower consumer acceptance. Cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAPP) and low energy electron beam (LEEB) are two promising innovative technologies for microbial inactivation on dry food surfaces, which have shown potential to solve these certain limitations.

Scope and approach

This review critically summarizes recent studies on the decontamination of dry food surfaces by CAPP and LEEB. Furthermore, proposed inactivation mechanisms, product-process interactions, current limitations and upscaling potential, as well as future trends and research needs for both emerging technologies, are discussed.

Key findings and conclusions

CAPP and LEEB are nonthermal technologies with a high potential for the gentle decontamination of dry food surfaces. Both technologies have similarities in their inactivation mechanisms. Due to the limited penetration depth of both technologies, product-process interactions can be minimized by maintaining product quality. A first demonstrator with Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7 for LEEB has already been introduced into the food industry for the decontamination of herbs and spices. Compared with LEEB, CAPP is at the advanced development stage with TRL 5, for which further work is essential to design systems that are scalable to industrial requirements.

中文翻译：

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冷大气压力等离子体和低能电子束作为干燥食品表面的替代非热去污技术：综述

背景

干食品通常被高度污染，并且如果将干食品掺入高水分食品中或重新水化，则诸如某些类型的沙门氏菌和细菌孢子等耐干微生物仍然可以存活并繁殖。用于对这些产品进行消毒的传统技术具有一定的局限性和缺陷，例如产品质量的改变，环境影响，潜在的致癌性和/或较低的消费者接受度。冷大气压等离子体（CAPP）和低能电子束（LEEB）是用于干燥食品表面微生物灭活的两种有前途的创新技术，它们显示出解决这些特定局限性的潜力。

范围和方法

该评论批判性地总结了有关CAPP和LEEB对干食品表面进行去污的最新研究。此外，还讨论了提议的灭活机制，产品-过程相互作用，当前的局限性和扩大规模的潜力，以及两种新兴技术的未来趋势和研究需求。

主要发现和结论

CAPP和LEEB是非热技术，具有对干食品表面进行轻柔去污的巨大潜力。两种技术的失活机制都有相似之处。由于两种技术的渗透深度有限，因此可以通过保持产品质量来最大程度地减少产品与过程之间的相互作用。LEEB的第一个具有技术准备水平（TRL）7的演示器已被引入食品工业，以对草药和香料进行去污。与LEEB相比，CAPP处于TRL 5的高级开发阶段，为此，进一步的工作对于设计可扩展到工业需求的系统至关重要。