A review: Application of non-thermal plasma on fruit juices

Non-thermal plasma (or cold plasma) is one of the non-thermal processing technologies that gained popularity in the last few years that could replace thermal processing of fruit juices. It can give a minimum of 5 log10 of microbial reduction while giving minimum effects to fruit juices quality. This review provides a general summary of non-thermal plasma utilization in the scope of fruit juice sterilization, factors affecting inactivation, and a brief mechanism of action. The success of microbial reduction by non-thermal plasma is influenced by many factors, such as processing parameters, powers, treatment time, and the gas used. The results of microbial inactivation in fruit juices could vary among various research for the same microbial target due to the different operating conditions and equipment. Numerous research showed that the changes in the quality of fruit juices are a time-dependent phenomenon. Therefore, it is suggested that further research tries to apply non-thermal plasma on fruit juices so that optimization of non-thermal plasma parameters, especially plasma treatment time, becomes crucial to be able to produce high-quality fruit juices.