Antimicrobial Effects of Cold Plasma on the Pathogenic Bacterium Salmonella enteritidis Existed on the Egg Shell

Cold plasma or non-thermal plasma technology is one of the methods of foodprocessing that is used to inactivate pathogen microorganisms and improve food safety. Coldplasma can affect the inactivation of a wide range of microorganisms, without harming thehost and healthy tissues.The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of cold plasma directly on reducing thenumbers of Salmonella enteritidis on egg shell and also to determine the effect of plasmaexposure time and the composition of the injected gas.

In this study, the effect of cold atmospheric plasma radiation ofargon and argon containing 5% oxygen gas, at the rate of 3 liters / min, and at three differenttimes on inactivation of Salmonella enteritidis was investigated.

The effect of argon gas radiation for 1, 3 and 6 minutes on the reduction ofsalmonella enteritidis numbers being 4.490, 3.948, 0 cfu /ml respectively, was significant at1% probability level. Also, the radiation effect of argon containing 5% oxygen at 1, 3 and 6minutes,on reduction of Salmonella enteritidis numbers was 4.559, 4.226 and 0 cfu /ml,respectively. Both groups of the treatments caused a significant decreasing trend at thestatistical level of 1% as compared to the control sample.

The obtained data indicated that the effects of the gas type, as well as theirradiation time and their interaction on the tested bacterium were statistically significant atp>0/01 as compared to the control.