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The purpose of this study was to examine plasma-activated buffer solution (PABS) and plasma-activated water (PAW) combined with ultrasonication (U) treatment on the reduction of chlorothalonil fungicide and the quality of tomato fruits during storage. To obtain PAW and PABS, an atmospheric air plasma jet was used to treat buffer solution and deionized water at different treatment times (5 and 10 min). For combined treatments, fruits were submerged in PAW and PABS, then sonicated for 15 min, and individual treatment without sonication. As per the results, the maximum chlorothalonil reduction of 89.29% was detected in PAW-U 10 , followed by 85.43% in PABS. At the end of the storage period, the maximum reduction of 97.25% was recorded in PAW-U 10 , followed by 93.14% in PABS-U 10 . PAW, PABS, and both combined with ultrasound did not significantly affect the overall tomato fruit quality in the storage period. Our results revealed that PAW combined with sonication had a significant impact on post-harvest agrochemical degradation and retention of tomato quality than PABS. Conclusively, the integrated hurdle technologies effectively reduce agrochemical residues, which helps to lower health hazards and foodborne illnesses., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The effects of pretreatments using plasma functionalized water (PW), osmodehydration (OD), and combined plasma functionalized water and osmodehydration (PO) on the drying characteristics, physicochemical and bioactive components of tomato slices during hot air drying at an air temperature of 55 °C and velocity of 1.5 m/s were evaluated. Results revealed that PW pretreatment led to an increase in lycopene compared to fresh samples, and shortened drying time, improved ascorbic acids, TPC, TFC, acidity, rehydration, porosity and hue, but reduced TSS, compared to dried control samples, while OD resulted in lycopene degradation during pretreatment, and prolonged drying time, increased TSS, but lowered acidity, rehydration, porosity and hue, compared to dried control samples. On the other hand, PO was found to overcome the shortcomings of OD with enhancement in the lycopene during pretreatment, and showed accelerated moisture transfer, improved bioactive, acidity, porosity, rehydration, hue and texture, but decreased TSS, when compared to dried control samples. Overall, the results showed the promising potential of PW and PO pretreatments for enhancing drying efficiency and product quality for the food industry., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Millets are small-seeded crops which have been well adopted globally owing to their high concentration of macro and micronutrients such as protein, dietary fibre, essential fatty acids, minerals and vitamins. Considering their climate resilience and potential role in nutritional and health security, the year 2023 has been declared as 'International Year of Millets' by the United Nations. Cereals being the major nutrient vehicle for a majority population, and proteins being the second most abundant nutrient in millets, these grains can be a suitable alternative for plant-based proteins. Therefore, this review was written with an aim to succinctly provide an overview of the available literature take on the characterization, processing and applications of millet-based proteins. This information would play an important role in realizing the research gap restricting the utilization of complete potential of millet proteins. This can be further used by researchers and food industries for understanding the scope of millet proteins as an ingredient for novel food product development., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The effects of the treatment (UPFL) combining ultrasound (US) with plasma functionalized liquids (PFL) were evaluated on the quality of vacuum-packaged silver Pomfret stored at 4 ℃ for 15 days. Conformational modifications in myofibrillar proteins, improvements in nutritional value and biomedical index of fatty acids and lipids, reduced pH of 5.70, increased K-value, TBARS, and TVB-N at values of 12.05%, 0.576 mg MDA/kg, and 9.15 mg N/100 g, respectively, and 1.99 log reductions in spoilage microorganisms were evident immediately after treatments. UPFL presented better quality preservative effects when compared with individual applications of US or PFL, and vacuum packaging ensured optimal quality enhancement effects such as stability of myofibril fragmentation, inhibition of physicochemical quality degradation, and microbial growth control. The results also revealed the predominant cultivable spoilage microbiota of vacuum-packaged silver Pomfret treated with UPFL, providing valuable information towards developing broad-spectrum sanitisers and hurdle technology for the seafood industry., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Protein gels have diverse applications in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic sectors due to their affordability, biodegradability, and edibility. However, the inherent properties of some native proteins have a few drawbacks that have to be tailored to meet the needs of specific functions as the food ingredients. The protein gelation properties mainly depend on the protein molecular structure, primarily the folding and unfolding of secondary structural elements (α-helix and β-sheets) with distinctive functions. In the past, a great amount of work (thermal, chemical, and enzymatic methods) has been carried out to enhance the gelation and functional properties of proteins. Recently, the traditional methods have been replaced with non-thermal physical methods that enhance the properties for better applications. One such approach is the use of ultrasonic technology as a low-cost green technology to modify the molecular orientation attributed to the native chemistry and functionality of that proteins. Ultrasonic technology is important in food systems and can be effectively used as an alternative method to improve the protein gelling characteristics to form high-quality gels. This article is aimed to comprehensively collate some of the vital information published on the mechanism of protein gelation by ultrasonication and review the effects of ultrasound-assisted extraction and treatments on gelation properties of different proteins. The enhanced gelation properties by the ultrasound application open a new stage of technology that enables the proteins for better utilization in the food processing sector., (© 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Hybridising plasma functionalized water and ultrasound pretreatment for the enzymatic hydrolysis (HPUEH) of Larimichthys polyactis was evaluated by adopting Plackett-Burman design for parametric screening of six key variables, and Box-Behnken design for optimizing three most significant variables including plasma generating voltage (P V ), ultrasound treatment time (U T ), and enzyme concentration (E C ). The models developed for predicting the degree of hydrolysis (DoH), protein recovery (PVY), and soluble protein content (SPC) were sufficiently fitted to the experimental data (R 2  ≥ 0.966) with non-significant lack of fit and used for determining the optimum conditions as P V of 70 V, U T of 15 min, and E C of 1.787%, with predictive values of 27.74%, 85.62%, and 3.28 mg/mL for DoH, PVY, and SPC, respectively. HPUEH presented hydrolysates with smaller peptide sizes and molecular weights, enhanced DoH, PVY, SPC, amino acids and antioxidant activity, but reduced emulsifying and foaming properties when compared with conventional enzymatic hydrolysis., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

A novel method of thermoultrasound-assisted plasma functionalized buffer (PFB) for decontaminating grass carp was evaluated using the Box-Behnken design (BBD) with processing variables including PFB generating voltage (P V ), ultrasound treatment time (U T ) and temperature (T P ). The predicted models were found to be significant (p < 0.05) and displayed sufficient fitness with experimental data as indicated by non-significant (p > 0.05) lack of fit and high coefficient of determination (R 2 ≥0.97) values. The optimum decontamination conditions for the responses of S. putrefaciens and S. Typhimurium were P V of 66 V, U T of 14.90 min and T P of 60 ℃, achieving reductions of 4.40 and 3.97 log CFU/g, respectively, with a desirability of 0.998. Among the variables, temperature presented higher significance for inactivating bacteria and the production of volatile basic nitrogen and lipid peroxidation under the optimized conditions were within the limits of freshness for grass carp. Additionally, the effects of PFB and the optimized thermoultrasound-assisted PFB decontamination were mild on the microstructure of grass carp with slight ruptures and loose myofibril structures, indicating the potential of thermoultrasound-assisted PFB for seafood products decontamination with reduced processing time., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Meat and seafood products present a viable medium for microbial propagation, which contributes to foodborne illnesses and quality losses. The development of novel and effective techniques for microbial decontamination is therefore vital to the food industry. Water presents a unique advantage for large-scale applications, which can be functionalized to inactivate microbial growth, ensuring the safety and quality of meat and seafood products. By taking into account the increased popularity of functionalized water utilization through electrolysis, ozonation and cold plasma technology, relevant literature regarding their applications in meat and seafood safety and quality are reviewed. In addition, the principles of generating functionalized water are presented, and the safety issues associated with their uses are also discussed.Functionalization of water is a promising approach for the microbiological safety and quality of meat and seafood products and possesses synergistic effects when combined with other decontamination approaches. However, functionalized water is often misused since the active antimicrobial component is applied at a much higher concentration, despite the availability of applicable regulations. Functionalized water also shows reduced antimicrobial efficiency and may produce disinfection by-products (DBPs) in the presence of organic matter, especially at a higher concentration of active microbial component. Utilization should be encouraged within regulated guidelines, especially as hurdle technology, while plasma functionalized water which emerges with great potentials should be exploited for future applications. It is hoped that this review should encourage the industry to adopt the functionalized water as an effective alternative technique for the food industry.

Plasma-functionalized liquids (PFL) emerge as an effective sanitizer with great potential to be against a variety of microorganisms but their applications on seafood products are limited. In the current study, the physicochemical properties of plasma-functionalized water (PFW) and plasma-functionalized buffer (PFB), and their antimicrobial activities on grass carp, were investigated under different conditions of applied voltage, plasma exposure time and immersion time. Results indicated that increasing voltage and exposure time led to an increase in levels of reactive species in PFW and PFB, while the presence of citric acid in the buffer accelerated possible reactions of active species and enhanced acidification, electrical conductivity (EC) and oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) as compared with PFW. Results also showed that the decontamination efficiency depended on voltage and exposure time, which could be up to 1.21 and 1.52 log reductions for L. monocytogenes, and 1.44 and 1.75 log reductions for S. Typhimurium for PFW and PFB, respectively. Immersing fish fillet samples in both solutions also led to a reduced pH and increased total acidity level in the samples with no significant difference (p > 0.05) between PFW and PFB, while PFB greatly affected the colour change in fish fillets. This study provided a basis for the potential development of novel sanitizers to decontaminate microorganism in fish and seafood products.Key points• Cold plasma induced a time-dependent change of active species in water and buffer.• Ionic equilibria of conjugate base and weak acid in buffer enhanced RNS and ROS.• Decontamination depended on voltage and exposure time of liquids to cold plasma.• Reduced pH, increased acidity and colour change were noticed in treated fish.• A basis for developing potential sanitizers for seafood products is provided.

The effects of a novel technology utilizing a simultaneous combination of Ultraviolet-C radiation and ultrasound energy postharvest treatment on tomato bioactive compounds during 28 days' storage period was investigated by varying Ultraviolet-C radiation intensities of 639.37 or 897.16 µW/cm 2 at a constant ultrasound intensity of 13.87 W/L from a 40 kHz-1 kW transducer. A minimal treatment time of 240 s at Ultraviolet-C dosage of 2.15 kJ/m 2 was observed to provoke a considerable increase in bioactive compounds content, proportionated to treatment time. Although treatment led to temperature increase in the system reaching 39.33 °C due to heat generation by ultrasonic cavitation, the extractability and biosynthesis of phytochemicals were enhanced resulting in 90%, 30%, 60%, 20%, and 36% increases in lycopene, total phenols, vitamin C, hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidant activities respectively. Results present the potential use of the combined non-thermal technologies as post-harvest treatment to improve bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity during storage., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)